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BS  2415  .D46  1895 
Denison,  John  Henry,  1841 

1924. 
Christ's  idea  of  the 


CHRISrS    IDEA  OF   THE 
SUPERNATURAL 


JOHN    H.   DENISON 


BOSTON    AND    NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

1895 


Copyright,  1895, 
By  JOHN  H.  DENISON. 

All  rights  reserved. 


The  Riversuie  Press,  Cavibridf^e,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 
Electrotyped  and  Priuted  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Ca 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.   Relation  of  God  to  Nature      .        .  i 

II,   Our  Nearest  Relative     ,        .        .  31 

III.  The  Stem  of  Righteousness       .        .  43 

IV.  The  Gospel  of  the  Body         .        .  58 
V.   The  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom       .        .  73 

VI.   The  Knowledge  of  God    ...  85 

VII.   The  Laws  of  Perception     .        .        .105 

VIII.   The  Law  of  Purity    .        .        .        .  127 

IX.   Light 143 

X.   Evidence 157 

XL   The  Law  of  the  Word         .        .        .170 

XII.   Revelation 193 

XIII.  The  Specific  Organism  OF  Revelation  210 

XIV.  Ceremonialism 237 

XV.   Miracles 254 

XVI.    The  Fulfiller 297 

XVII.   The  Resurrection          ....  327 

XVIII.   The  Christ  Universe         .        .        .  342 

XIX.  The  Foundation  of  Belief          .        .  386 


CHRIST'S  IDEA  OF  THE  SUPER- 
NATURAL. 


CHAPTER   I. 

RELATION    OF    GOD    TO    NATURE. 

I.  Heaven  and  Earth  a  Natural  Unity. 

When  a  man  approaches  Christianity 
from  the  standpoint  of  modern  thought, 
he  encounters  an  apparent  unreasonable- 
ness. Christianity  insists  on  men  beHev- 
ing  its  revelation,  as  the  condition  of 
eternal  life,  but  when  it  is  appealed  to 
to  prove  its  revelation,  so  that  a  man  can 
believe  it,  it  presents  a  series  of  evidences 
more  or  less  satisfactory,  it  is  true,  but  not 
amounting  to  any  absolute  demonstration, 
and,  to  many  honest  minds,  quite  incon- 
clusive. It  is  thus  thrown  into  the  absurd 
attitude  of  holding  men  responsible,  under 
pain  of  eternal  condemnation,  when  no 
conclusive  evidence  is  furnished  to  the 
mind. 


2  RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

Now,  at  this  point  much  depends  on  the 
man ;  if  he  be  fair-minded  he  Vv^ill,  after 
viewing  the  situation,  say.  There  must 
be  some  mistake  here ;  however  much  or 
little  one  may  accept  of  the  details  in  the 
New  Testament  it  is  clear  that  there  was 
a  person  named  Jesus,  —  Caesar's  existence 
is  not  more  certain.  It  is  clear,  too,  that 
he  must  have  been  a  singularly  original, 
fair-minded  and  powerful  character.  This 
is  shown  by  his  impact  on  humanity ;  by 
the  powerful  and  practical  current  that  he 
made  in  religious  thought  and  life.  Now, 
no  thoughtful  or  original  character  would 
have  been  likely  to  found  his  own  religious 
claims  upon  so  absurd  a  basis ;  for  we 
must  remember  that  the  claims  of  Chris- 
tianity represent  Christ's  own  intellectual 
and  moral  position.  We  must  remember, 
too,  that  the  Jewish  lawyers  of  Christ's 
day  were  shrewd  reasoners.  If  his  intel- 
lectual position  was  so  very  weak  they 
mieht  have  been  saved  the  trouble  of 
crucifying  him,  for  he  would  have  fallen 
an  easy  prey  to  their  logic.  The  inference 
therefore  is  fair  that  the  same  thing  has 
occurred  with   regard  to  Jesus  which  has 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.  3 

SO  often  occurred  in  regard  to  religious 
teachers :  some  great  central  truth  of  his 
system,  to  which  his  life  and  person  gave 
peculiar  emphasis,  in  the  minds  of  his 
original  hearers,  has  become  obscured,  or 
fallen  into  the  background,  and  so,  for  lack 
of  its  proportioning  effect,  all  related  truths 
have  been  thrown  into  confusion  or  distor- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  is  just  what 
has  occurred.  There  was  a  central  truth 
of  Christ's  teaching  which  his  life,  his  per- 
sonality, his  every  action,  and  the  very  at- 
mosphere that  he  carried  with  him,  forced 
continually  upon  men  with  predominant 
emphasis.  This  was  the  truth  which  the- 
ology has  somewhat  vaguely  striven  to 
preserve  to  the  world  in  the  doctrine  of 
the  Incarnation.  It  was  the  unity  between 
the  natural  and  spiritual  worlds. 

The  common  idea  of  the  spiritual  world 
is  indicated  by  the  word  "  supernatural," 
which  means,  to  the  popular  mind,  some- 
thing above  and  therefore  beyond  nature's 
realm,  something  wholly  out  of  the  category 
of  natural  forces,  so  that  the  tie  between 
it  and  us  is  an  arbitrary  one.  If  there  be 
a  God,  then  from  this  standpoint  nature 


4         RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

belongs  to  Him,  not  because  of  any  affinity, 
but  because  He  made  it,  as  a  watchmaker 
makes  a  watch.  Taking  this  view,  it  is 
clear  what  a  divine  revelation  would  have 
to  be.  It  must  necessarily  be  non-natural, 
and  as  the  contents  of  the  revelation  would 
relate  to  facts  of  which  we  have  no  experi- 
ence, and  for  which  we  have  no  structural 
adaptation,  the  whole  testimony  of  nature 
would  be  against  it.  Before  men  could 
reasonably  believe  it,  it  would  have  to  be 
proved  by  a  suspension  of  a  natural  law. 
This  suspension  would  show  that  nature 
was  in  the  hands  of  a  being  foreign  to  itself. 
The  miracle  would  be  valuable  in  propor- 
tion as  the  law  was  interfered  with.  Then, 
of  course,  the  man  would  accept  the  mes- 
sage as  extra-natural ;  he  would  believe  it, 
though  it  told  him  that  he  must  enter  a 
second  time  into  his  mother's  womb  and 
be  born.  He  would  say.  That  is  not  natu- 
ral, but  I  have  evidence  that  there  is  a 
God  outside  of  nature,  and  that  He  has 
decided,  for  reasons  outside  of  nature,  to 
employ  me  to  do  things  that  are  outside 
of  nature.  Such  a  revelation  would  require 
either  that  its  outward  miracle  should  be 


RELA  TION  OF  GOD    TO  NA  TURE.  5 

repeated  from  age  to  age,  or  that  there 
should  be  an  unbroken  chain  of  historic 
testimony,  consisting  of  persons  who  were 
themselves  obeying  this  revelation,  and 
doing  things  entirely  above  nature,  or  else 
there  would  have  to  be  an  inward  miracle 
constantly  repeated,  by  which  God  com- 
municated, by  means  of  some  subjective 
prodigy,  the  certainty  of  this  past  revelation. 
Again,  we  see  that,  with  such  a  view  of 
the  supernatural,  it  could  have  no  relation- 
ship to  human  life;  being  out  of  the  cate- 
gory of  natural  forces,  what  could  it  have 
to  do  with  a  bundle  of  natural  forces  like 
man  ?  Alien  to  natural  vitalities,  what  could 
it  have  to  do  with  our  vitality  ?  Outside  of 
nature,  what  bearing  could  it  have  on  our 
moral  nature?  —  for  surely  there  are  only 
two  positions.  If  the  supernatural  is, 
strictly  speaking,  above  nature,  then  it  is 
outside  of  nature  and  everything  belonging 
to  it.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  related  to 
any  part  of  nature,  then  it  belongs  to  the 
whole,  for  nature  is  a  unity.  Assuming 
that  it  is  above  and  outside  of  nature,  then 
of  course  it  is  wholly  beyond  natural  experi- 
ence, nay,  natural  experience  is  all  against 


6         RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

it,  its  very  existence  is  unlikely  and  calls 
for  a  proof  that  can  outweigh  nature's  testi- 
mony. 

It  is  clear  what  religion  becomes,  start- 
ing from  such  premises ;  it  is  a  thing 
wholly  non-natural,  an  experience  to  which 
nature  is  opposed.  Thus,  to  the  religious 
man,  nature  becomes  a  violent  antagonist. 
God's  will  is,  as  the  Calvinist  said,  wholly 
arbitrary ;  all  nature  cries  out  against  it ; 
the  bodily  constitution  is  opposed  to  it ;  in 
fact,  from  this  standpoint  the  flesh  is  an 
unmitigated  evil,  and  asceticism  is  the  tri- 
umph of  faith.  So  again,  prayer,  praise, 
and  religious  duties  in  general,  are  entirely 
arbitrary  proceedings.  The  world  is  no 
better,  mankind  not  one  whit  advanced  for 
them,  because  they  have  no  relationship  to 
anything  upon  earth ;  it  is  true  they  may 
be  done  to  please  God,  but  the  pleasure 
He  takes  in  them  is  of  a  purely  self-grati- 
fying sort. 

If  we  take  the  opposite  view,  propounded 
by  some  philosophers,  that  which  we  have 
called  the  supernatural  becomes  simply  the 
most  inclusive  natural,  or  the  unknowable 
force,  of  which  all  nature   is  the  product. 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.  / 

It  is  plain  to  see  with  that  view  what  a  su- 
pernatural revelation  becomes.  It  is  sim- 
ply the  imperative  mood  of  nature  voiced 
in  any  man,  a  command  that  says  one 
thing  upon  the  pages  of  St.  Paul,  a  vio- 
lently opposite  thing  on  the  pages  of 
Byron.  It  speaks  alike  in  the  noble  sacri- 
fice of  the  Christ,  and  in  the  unrestrained 
life  of  Shelley.  With  it  a  religion  becomes 
impossible ;  it  is  a  compass  without  any 
north  star  to  point  to. 

It  should  be  carefully  noted  that  neither 
of  these  views  is  due  to  any  school  of 
thought,  either  ancient  or  modern.  They 
have  prevailed  at  all  times,  more  or  less ; 
they  are  not  due  so  much  to  logic  as  to 
a  state  of  the  feelings.  The  first  view, 
particularly  that  of  extreme  supernatu- 
ralism,  has  marked  a  mechanical  and 
thoughtless  tendency.  It  is  a  view  that 
frequently  characterizes  religious  people 
who  are  maintaining  the  forms  of  religion, 
but  whose  feelings  are  as  a  matter  of  fact 
absorbed  with  earth.  It  is  the  logical  re- 
sult of  the  atrophy  of  spiritual  intuition  in 
a  man  who  still  clings  to  spiritual  forms. 
In  the  case  of  religious  leaders  the  misery 


8         RELATION  OF  GOD   TO  NATURE. 

of  It  is,  that  in  their  hands  this  weird  and 
arbitrary  supernaturalism  becomes  a  dread- 
ful engine  for  the  mangling  and  crushing 
of  the  religious  nature  itself.  True,  this 
kind  of  authority  has  been  wielded  by 
priests  in  the  apparent  interests  of  moral- 
ity, nay,  it  has  proved  the  bulwark  of  a 
certain  dogmatic  faith,  of  a  governmental 
justice,  a  conventional  righteousness.  It 
is  doubtless  better  than  anarchy.  It  may 
be,  at  times,  the  only  bulwark  possible  to 
certain  forms  of  civilization,  which  have  a 
transient  value,  but  if  we  are  to  take  the 
word  of  Christ,  it  is  to  the  heart  of  God 
well-nigh  intolerable,  for  it  is  a  cruelty  to 
the  human  soul.  It  rarely  fails  to  kill  the 
tender  fibres  of  living  faith,  or  to  extin- 
pfuish  the  love  of  God.  This  was  what 
Jesus  saw  going  on  about  him,  under  the 
priests  and  rabbis,  and  it  awoke  his  fiery 
protest.  To  his  eye  they  were  destroying 
men,  for  to  him  outward  institutions  were 
relatively  a  small  thing.  Religion  and  mo- 
rality were  the  living  fibres  of  living  souls; 
therefore  against  this  heartless  and  tyran- 
nous supernaturalism  Jesus  never  ceased 
to  oppose  the  whole  testimony  of  his  spir- 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.         9 

itual  consciousness.  It  was  the  vital  issue 
between  him  and  the  hierarchy.  In  a  com- 
ing Messiah  they  looked  for  a  certain  kind 
of  supernaturalism.  Jesus  presented  a  dia- 
metrically opposite  kind.  They  looked  for 
a  prodigy  to  support  their  claims;  in  its 
stead  Jesus  presented  the  life  of  the  Fa- 
ther, embodied  in  the  humble  guise  of  a 
Galilean  peasant.  To  this  he  felt  himself 
imperatively  called  by  the  divine  love. 
God  pressed  upon  him.  God  would  be 
humanized. 

But  this  presentation  of  supernaturalism 
was  not  what  the  hierarchy  wanted ;  to 
have  waited  long  years  for  a  reinforce- 
ment of  prodigies,  with  which  to  restore 
the  old  theocracy,  and  then  to  have  to  put 
up  with  Jesus  !  it  broke  their  hopes,  was 
fatal  to  their  pride,  and,  as  Jesus  said,  they 
both  saw  and  hated  both  him  and  his 
Father.  It  was  therefore  against  implac- 
able antagonism  and  hostile  criticism  that 
Jesus  advanced  his  view  of  the  supernat- 
ural. The  very  sharpness  of  the  conflict 
threw  this  idea  ever  into  the  foreground. 
It  was  hardly  necessary  that  he  should  an- 
nounce or  define  his  view;  it  announced 


10       RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

and  defined  itself.  It  is  next  to  impossible 
for  us  at  this  distance,  reading  the  Gos- 
pels in  a  coolly  intellectual  way,  to  realize 
the  tremendous  proportion  that  the  super- 
naturalism  of  Jesus  assumed  to  the  men 
of  his  day.  It  put  him  at  once  in  the 
forefront ;  expectation  hung  on  him  ;  the 
whole  national  hope  stood  breathless  be- 
fore him.  As  he  went  in  and  out  of  syn- 
agogues, the  representatives  of  Judaism 
watched  him  with  closest  scrutiny.  Nor 
did  they  watch  in  vain  ;  ^hey  had  not  to 
wait  for  words ;  his  supernaturalism  sat 
upon  his  brow  ;  it  held  out  its  quiet  but 
unyielding  claim  in  his  very  mien  ;  it  came 
heavily  weighted  with  every  act.  What- 
ever he  said  or  did  issued  from  it,  —  con- 
veyed it.  It  was  self-defining,  aggressive, 
irresistible ;  had  he  been  content  with 
words,  had  he  merely  lectured  about  it,  the 
offense  would  have  been  small ;  had  he  only 
stood  in  the  synagogue  and  said  with  calm 
assurance,  "  Son,  be  of  good  cheer,  thy 
sins  be  forgiven  thee,"  he  might  have  been 
censured  and  forgiven,  but  when  he  said, 
"  Take  up  thy  bed  and  walk,"  and  even 
disease  obeyed  him,  then  according  to  the 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.        II 

account  their  fury  rose.  From  that  point 
on,  the  struggle  was  desperate,  and  as  when 
they  declared,  "  He  blasphemeth,"  because 
he  said  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  or  when 
he  persisted  in  healing  on  the  Sabbath 
day,  or  again  when  he  refused  to  withdraw 
his  statement  that  he  was  the  real  bread 
from  heaven,  the  bitterness  of  the  con- 
flict ever  centred  about  the  same  point. 
It  was  his  presentation  of  the  supernatu- 
ral ;  so  desperate  were  they  that  they  even 
declared  it  to  be  diabolic.  Both  sides 
knew  that  it  was  a  struggle  for  life.  To 
Jesus  it  was  clear  from  the  first  how  it 
must  end  ;  they  would  be  driven  to  cru- 
cify him,  but  from  the  cross  itself  he  ex- 
pected to  give  the  crowning  truth  of  his 
supernaturalism.  Toward  that  he  ad- 
vanced with  a  step  that  none  could  put 
aside. 

Thus  must  it  ever  be  with  the  original 
conveyance  of  spiritual  or  moral  truth. 
These  truths  cannot  be  originally  ex- 
plained or  presented  by  lecture  -  room 
methods.  Nor  can  they  at  the  outset  be 
proved,  for  they  cannot  be  philosophically 
stated ;  they  require  a  free  hand  and  a  ere- 


12       RELATION  OF  GOD   TO  NATURE. 

ative  power;  they  are,  as  Jesus  declared 
them  to  be,  inseparable  from  the  flesh 
and  blood  of  the  teacher ;  at  the  outset, 
analysis  is  a  deathblow  to  them.  It  is  so, 
too,  with  aesthetic  truth.  The  soul  of  the 
artist  must  be  in  touch  with  life  and  under 
her  immediate  inspirations.  His  teach- 
ing must  consist  in  living  forms,  evoked 
by  living  forms.  It  must  start  to  life  at 
life's  touch.  First  Giotto  paints,  then  fol- 
lows the  art  critic ;  so,  too,  with  the  whole 
range  of  truth  related  to  man's  higher  sen- 
sibility; original  teaching  here  must  al- 
ways be  life.  The  truth  must  first  be 
created  in  the  form  of  manhood,  then  com- 
prehended, intellectualized,  and  applied. 
Garibaldi's  deeds  shine  upon  Italy  and 
the  Italians  see  that  they  have  a  patria. 
Cavour,  the  astute  politician,  applies  the 
principle  scientifically  and  the  new  Italy 
appears. 

The  original  form  of  these  truths  is  life, 
always  life ;  the  man  of  action,  the  crea- 
tor, must  come  first.  To  attempt  to  an- 
ticipate his  work  is,  as  Jesus  expressed  it, 
to  be  a  thief  and  a  robber ;  but  after  him, 
the  thinker  is  invaluable  ;  it  becomes  his 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.       13 

business  to  analyze  this  living  truth,  and 
to  teach  its  elements  as  well  as  their  appli- 
cation. Jesus  clearly  understood  his  work 
as  truth  maker,  therefore  he  did  not  theo- 
rize or  philosophize  or  take  subjects  into 
isolation  from  life.  He  taught  in  the 
crowd,  under  the  pressure  of  humanity, 
face  to  face  with  the  devil  and  his  angels, 
but  above  all  he  lived ;  his  life  was  a  crea- 
tion, a  tragedy,  and  an  interpretation  ;  it 
shone  upon  the  teeming  world  about  him 
and  irradiated  it,  till  its  archaic  forms  were 
transfused  with  light  and  turned  into  a 
gospel.  In  no  other  way  could  he  have 
been  the  great  original  teacher,  as  he  said 
to  Pilate,  —  the  king  of  the  truth.  But  it 
is  for  us  who  would  possess  this  truth  to 
analyze  its  intellectual  contents  and  so 
possess  ourselves  of  it. 

As  has  been  said,  the  issue  of  all  this 
life-teaching  was  a  certain  unmistakable, 
aggressive  view  concerning  supernatural- 
ism.  This  view  we  find  distinctly  asserted 
in  his  teaching  concerning  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  which  occupies  a  large  part  of  the 
first  three  Gospels.  Beyond  question  the 
coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  signified 


14      RELATION  OF  GOD  TO  NATURE. 

to  the  Jewish  mind  the  entrance  of  super- 
natural power  into  the  natural  world,  and 
their  notion  of  such  an  entrance  was  that 
it  w^ould  be  essentially  unlike  the  entrance 
of  a  natural  force.  This  was  the  ground, 
as  has  been  said,  of  their  opposition  to  the 
Messiahship  of  Jesus.  He  had  entered 
the  world  in  too  humble  and  naturalistic 
a  way.  Indeed,  Jesus  found  the  Jewish 
mind  so  hostile  that  he  partially  disguised 
the  truth  in  parables,  thus  giving  to  it  a 
germinative  rather  than  an  immediate  dis- 
closure. This  broke  the  violence  of  the 
collision,  and  gave  him  an  opportunity  for 
his  preparatory  work.  He,  however,  in- 
terpreted these  parables  to  his  disciples, 
and  what  was  their  theme  ?  The  entrance 
of  this  expected  supernaturalism  which  he 
illustrated  in  the  parable  of  the  sower.  To 
begin  with,  there  is  the  supernatural  force 
of  the  kingdom,  and  what  is  it  ?  his  own 
word,  the  word  of  a  man,  a  Nazarene,  born 
of  a  woman,  as  natural  as  it  was  supernat- 
ural. But  what  was  its  method  of  en- 
trance and  operation  upon  the  world } 
Like  that  of  a  seed  in  the  field.  Now,  if 
one  were   to  select  from  the  whole    uni- 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.        1 5 

verse,  it  would  be  impossible  to  pick  out 
a  more  typical  instance  of  the  way  in 
which  a  natural  force  enters  on  its  work. 
Whether  we  view  the  transmissiveness  of 
the  seed  itself,  or  the  affiliation  of  the  earth 
for  it,  or  the  strange  affinity  of  the  invisi- 
ble life  force  for  matter,  we  have  a  per- 
fect illustration  of  what  we  call  Nature's 
method,  by  which  all  her  forces  do  their 
work.  They  all  operate  along  the  line  of 
undeveloped  unities.  They  are  all,  as  we 
express  it,  correlated  with  one  another. 
There  is  between  them  a  kind  of  recipro- 
city. That  reciprocity  is  not  now  wholly 
realized,  but  it  can  be.  It  is  potential. 
The  method  by  which  it  is  to  be  realized 
is  that  of  the  living  organism.  By  living 
organisms  reciprocity  is  established  be- 
tween the  facts  and  forces  of  the  natural 
world.  The  higher  the  organism  the 
wider  is  the  circle  of  these  reciprocities, 
for  organic  life  is  the  great  coordinator. 

When  I  say  it  is  the  coordinator,  I  mean 
that  it  coordinates  or  harnesses  together 
things  that  are  adapted  to  each  other. 
Here,  for  example,  is  tjie  dark  mould  be- 
neath the  surface  of  a  wheat  field  ;  there 


1 6       RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

is  the  sunlit  air  above ;  there  are  chemical 
elements,  some  of  them  in  the  soil,  some 
in  the  atmosphere  ;  all  these  are  correlated 
with  each  other  ;  there  is  a  potential  re- 
ciprocity between  them,  but  it  is  not  es- 
tablished. Now,  there  drops  into  the  soil 
a  kernel  of  corn ;  by  its  vitality  it  estab- 
lishes the  reciprocity  between  the  clods 
of  earth  that  lie  around  it,  and  also  be- 
tween the  chemical  elements  they  contain. 
Then,  as  it  rises  and  pushes  its  head 
above  ground,  it  establishes  a  yet  farther 
reciprocity  ;  it  coordinates  earth  and  sky, 
and,  taking  the  chemical  elements  of  both, 
elaborates  them  into  food,  thus  coordinat- 
ing them  with  the  human  stomach,  with 
human  life,  and  with  its  far-reaching  ac- 
tivities. 

Now  nothing  could  at  first  sight  appear 
more  absolutely  alien  than  a  force  like 
human  will  and  such  an  inert  thing  as  a 
lump  of  earth  ;  yet  we  see  that  they  have 
a  potential  reciprocity  ;  they  are  corre- 
lated, and  may  actually  be  coordinated  by 
a  kernel  of  corn.  A  loaf  of  bread  is  a 
product  of  such  coordination  between  veg- 
etable  life   and    lumps  of   earth,  and   for 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE,       17 

want  of  a  loaf  of  bread,  the  energy  of  the 
human  will  has  been  known  to  collapse. 
Now  the  question  is,  how  far  this  correla- 
tion of  forces  extends.  One  thing  is  cer- 
tain, it  extends  beyond  what  men  used 
to  call  the  sky.  It  takes  in  all  the  stars  of 
light,  and  what  men  once  called  God's 
throne.  Does  it  actually  take  in  God's 
throne  .f^  Undoubtedly,  if  God's  throne  be 
a  glorious  star;  but  what  if  it  be  a  force  — 
does  it  take  in  that  force  1  or  does  it  climb 
all  the  way  up  the  ladder  of  forces  till 
it  reaches  God,  and  there  stop,  shutting 
us  out  of  the  same  category  with  God.f^ 
Those  that  have  studied  nature  pro- 
foundly, reverently,  scientifically,  have  had 
a  growing  conviction  that  her  unity  did 
somehow  take  in  God ;  that  God  is  with 
us  in  this  universe.  "  Natural  Law  in  the 
Spiritual  World  "  is  the  title  of  a  book  that 
has  aroused  unusual  interest.  It  appeals 
to  the  growing  sense  of  unity,  to  the  feel- 
ing that  the  supernatural  must  be  some- 
how natural.  The  aim  of  the  book  is  to 
show  that  natural  law  does  take  in  the 
spiritual  world.  To  many  minds  this 
view  seems  to  involve  a  fundamental  error. 


l8       RELATION  OF  GOD   TO  NATURE. 

Spirit,  they  say,  is  free  ;  it  is  not  necessi- 
tated, it  does  not  come  under  the  sway  of 
natural  force.  It  is  a  free  will.  Un- 
doubtedly this  is  true.  Man's  spirit  is  free  ; 
no  force  of  nature  necessitates  its  choice. 
You  may  refuse  a  man  bread  if  he  con- 
fesses Christ ;  but  that  does  not  necessitate 
his  denying  Christ.  On  the  other  hand, 
however,  the  man's  spirit  is  a  force,  an  or- 
ganic force  ;  the  taking  away  of  the  bread 
interferes  with  its  power  as  an  organic 
force ;  the  spirit  itself  is  free,  but  it  is  hin- 
dered in  its  range  of  activity,  and  it  suffers. 
Thus,  while  in  one  sense  it, is  free  from  the 
sweep  of  organic  law,  it  is  nevertheless 
affected  by  it.  It  has,  as  has  been  said,  a 
potential  reciprocity.  It  may  choose  to 
let  that  reciprocity  go.  It  may  choose  to 
die,  that  is,  to  pass  out  of  the  range  of 
reciprocity,  out  of  the  field  of  organic 
coordination,  but  the  pang  of  death  attests 
the  profound  constitutionality  of  this  reci- 
procity. The  human  spirit  does  not  will- 
ingly cease  to  be  coordinated  with  matter. 
Now,  it  is  because  the  human  spirit  is  not 
only  a  free  will  but  an  organic  force  that 
it  belongs  to   nature,   and   if    natural  law 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.        1 9 

actually  extends  throughout  the  supernat-' 
ural  world,  then  we  must  conceive  of  God 
as  being  himself  the  Supreme  Organic 
Force.  Nor  is  this  position  necessarily  in- 
consistent with  God's  Infinity  or  Absolute- 
ness. It  is  conceivable  that  there  is  in 
him  a  potential  correlation  with  the  mate- 
rial world,  a  correlation  which  he  is  free 
to  abandon ;  which  is  in  fact  of  his  own 
making,  but  which,  while  it  lasts,  brings 
him  into  the  same  category  with  us,  and 
so  necessitates  his  suffering  with  us.  It 
is  a  fair  hypothesis  that  there  is  thus  not 
only  a  divine  Will,  but  a  divine  Nature,  a 
department  of  the  divine  Being,  correlated 
with  nature  and  immanent  in  it,  as  the 
vegetative  life  is  immanent  in  the  wheat 
stem.  If  God  has  such  a  nature  thus 
reciprocal  with  ours,  thus  coordinated 
with  earth  by  every  living  organism,  then 
indeed  there  is  *  a  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world,  for  in  all  our  afflic- 
tion he  is  afflicted,  and  in  all  our  neces- 
sity he  is  necessitated ;  yet  with  all  he  is 
free ;  his  sovereiQ:n  decree  lies  at  the  foun- 
dation  of  it  all.  He  is  not  only  immanent 
but  supra-manent.     "  He   inhabiteth  eter- 


20       RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

nity."  With  this  Kmitation,  there  is  cer- 
tainly no  difficulty  about  this  conception 
of  natural  law,  as  taking  in  the  spiritual 
world,  though  in  all  probability  the  better 
statement  would  be  that  spiritual  law 
takes  in  the  natural  world. 

11.  Morality  founded  07i  Relationship. 

But  what  has  this  question  of  the  rela- 
tion between  nature  and  the  supernatural 
to  do  with  that  practical  righteousness 
which  was  the  aim  of  Christ's  life  ?  It  has 
everything  to  do  with  it,  for  Christ  con- 
ceived of  the  moral  law  as  based  on  an 
organic  relationship  which  extended  to  the 
heart  of  God  himself,  and  he  held  that  all 
moral  power  is  generated  by  a  recognition 
of  those  relations  on  which  morality  itself 
is  based. 

This  is  instanced  in  his  reply  to  a 
certain  lawyer,  a  representative  of  the 
hostile  hierarchy,  who  endeavors  to  draw 
this  uneducated  peasant  into  the  meshes 
of  learned  casuistry.  Which  is  the  great 
commandment  in  the  law,  asks  the  subtle 
logician.  There  is  a  contradiction  as  to 
detail  in  the  recollection  of  the  different 


.,       RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.       21 

disciples,  some  asserting  that  Jesus  replied 
by  repeating  the  two  well-known  summa- 
ries in  Deuteronomy.  Another  account 
represents  him  as  returning  the  question 
in  a  form  that  pinned  the  lawyer  to  his 
book,  while  it  put  him  on  his  mettle  to 
give  the  matter  an  intelligent  construc- 
tion. "What  is  written  in  the  law.^^  how 
readest  thou  ?  "  said  Jesus.  When  the^ 
man  stated  the  law,  in  accordance  with 
the  most  intelligent  construction  of  the 
day,  Jesus  simply  returned  him  his  an- 
swer, adding  somewhat  dryly,  "This  do, 
and  thou  shalt  live."  This  latter  part  of 
the  reply  pointed  out  the  real  difficulty 
which  underlay  all  the  attempts  of  these 
learned  men  to  find  the  truth.  It  was  the 
unnaturalness  of  their  religion.  Even 
when  they  had  the  intellectual  clue  to  the 
law,  they  could  not  unravel  it ;  it  remained 
a  riddle  to  them  ;  they  could  indeed  com- 
prehend its  formal  statement,  concerning 
the  supremacy  of  love ;  but  love  itself 
they  did  not  comprehend.  They  had  not 
experienced  it,  nor  was  it  disclosed  to 
them  as  an  organic  force.  They  could 
not  therefore  discern    its  relation   to  life. 


22       RELATION  OF  GOD   TO  NATURE. 

Claiming  to  be  an  authority  upon  the 
subject  of  the  moral  law,  and  to  be  ade- 
quate critics  of  Christ's  moral  position,  they 
themselves  knew  not  how  to  apply  the 
law.  It  was  not  to  them  a  practical  or  a 
livable  thing.  It  did  not  adjust  them  to 
Nature,  nor  to  her  higher  spiritual  vital- 
ities. There  was  therefore  a  keen  though 
mournful  sarcasm  in  the  reply  of  Jesus : 
"  This  do,  and  thou  shalt  live."  But  ac- 
cording to  all  accounts  Jesus  indorsed 
the  position  held  by  the  ablest  jurists  of 
his  nation  ;  he  planted  himself  like  them 
upon  the  two  great  summaries  of  Deute- 
ronomy. " '  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God,  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy 
soul  and  with  all  thy  mind ; '  this,"  he  said, 
"is  the  first  and  great  commandment;  and 
the  second  is  like  unto  it :  '  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.'  On  these 
two  commandments  hang  all  the  law  and 
the  prophets."  But  when  the  lawyer  re- 
treats once  more  into  the  labyrinths  of 
casuistry,  and  lawyer-like  asks,  "  Who  is 
my  neighbor  1 "  Jesus,  who  always  kept 
control  of  a  conversation,  does  not  allow 
himself    to    be    drawn    into    this    fruitless 


RELATION  OF  GOD   TO  NATURE.       23 

discussion  of  terminology,  but  he  gives 
an  instance  of  a  certain  man  who  fell 
among  thieves ;  and  so  faithful  is  this 
touch  of  nature  that  when  Jesus  con- 
cludes with  the  question,  "  Who  was 
neighbor  to  him  that  fell  among  thieves  ?  " 
the  lawyer,  taken  by  surprise,  is  con- 
strained by  the  logic  of  his  heart  to  say, 
"  He  that  showed  mercy  on  him."  Whereat 
Jesus  answers  again  dryly  and  pointedly, 
"  Go  thou  and  do  likewise."  This  story  of 
the  good  Samaritan  is  one  of  the  master 
strokes  of  Jesus ;  it  defines  neighborliness, 
artist-like,  not  by  terminology  but  by  por- 
trayal. 

The  portrayal  is  so  lifelike,  one  is 
obliged  to  say.  Yes,  that  is  it ;  while  at  the 
same  time  all  its  facts  stand  out  in  such 
clear  proportion  that  there  is  no  mistak- 
ing its  philosophy. 

To  the  Jew  or  any  one  else  in  Christ's 
time, "neighbor "was  a  rather  undefined  as 
well  as  undefinable  term  ;  it  could,  in  fact, 
only  be  defined  by  throwing  clear  light  on 
the  unity  which  it  represented.  To  com- 
prehend the  unity  is  to  comprehend  the 
word  "  neighbor."     Even  to  their  minds  it 


24       RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

had,  however,  some  boundaries  that  ap- 
peared to  be  established ;  it  did  not 
include  a  barbarian  nor  a  slave,  nor  to  a 
Jewish  mind  did  it  include  a  Samaritan. 
These  distinctions  were  certainly  not  phi- 
losophic, they  were  not  founded  upon 
nature  or  reality.  In  fact,  the  word  "  neigh- 
bor" represented  an  arbitrary  and  conven- 
tional unity.  Of  course  the  love  founded 
on  it  had  a  capricious  and  formal  quality ; 
like  anything  not  rooted  in  nature's  unity, 
it  had  little  of  nature's  force ;  it  was  a 
conventional,  sickly  kind  of  product :  but 
here  was  a  Samaritan  who  was  a  neighbor. 
His  neighborliness  w^as  of  a  healthy  kind, 
too.  There  was  in  it  something  of 
Nature's  grand  vitality.  It  had  the  force 
and  spontaneity  of  her  great  currents ;  it 
did  not  stop  for  trifles ;  it  burst  through 
the  wall  of  Judaism:  and  here  were  a  priest 
and  a  Levite,  ministers  of  the  Jewish  reli- 
gion, keepers  of  its  moral  law,  who  were 
not  neighbors  to  their  own  religious  con- 
frere. Why  were  they  not?  The  answer 
is  clear;  the  neighbor  is  he  that  showed 
mercy  on  him.  But  what  is  mercy  ?  A 
natural  potency  of  the  human  heart;  a  feel- 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.       25 

ing  that  requires  voluntary  cultivation,  no 
doubt,  and  therefore  we  call  it  moral ;  but 
who  will  say  that  it  is  not  native  to  the 
heart  of  the  good  Samaritan  ?  Clearly, 
this  Samaritan  has  a  natural  faculty  within 
him,  by  which  he  can  feel  the  heart  of  the 
Jew;  can  feel  his  misery,  his  want;  can 
feel  what  would  do  him  good  ;  can  feel 
that  oil  and  wine  would  be  comforting  to 
him ;  can  show  this  feeling  by  practical 
embodiments  of  it :  and  the  Jew  in  his 
turn  can,  through  these  embodiments,  feel 
the  merciful  heart  of  the  Samaritan. 

This  is  an  extraordinary  thing,  you  no- 
tice, a  great  discovery,  greater  than  that 
of  gas  or  electricity  or  America,  for  here 
was  supposed  to  be  the  boundary  of  neigh- 
borhood, and  now  the  boundary  is  crossed. 
Once  crossed,  it  will  be  crossed  again  and 
again.  Indeed,  the  followers  of  Jesus  have 
been  crossing  it  ever  since,  and  have  been 
proving  not  only  that  the  Jew  and  the 
Samaritan  are  neighbors,  but  likewise  the 
Jew  and  the  Greek,  the  Anglo-Saxon  and 
the  Chinaman ;  in  short,  that  all  men  are 
neio:hbors  or  near-dwellers,  that  there  is 
between  them  all  a  potential  reciprocity. 


26       RELATION  OF  GOD   TO  NATURE. 

And  the  law  is  that  this  should  be  estab- 
lished like  all  other  natural  correlations, 
just  as  the  good  Samaritan  established  it, 
by  organic  coordination.  This  potency  of 
mercy  shall  not  lie  dormant  and  stifled  in 
the  heart ;  the  life  organs  shall  take  it  up ; 
the  brain  shall  throb  with  its  problem, 
and  the  heart  pulsate  with  its  emotion, 
and  the  eye  kindle  with  its  light,  and  the 
hand  and  foot  make  haste  to  do  its  bid- 
ding. Then,  when  reciprocal  feeling  be- 
comes an  organic  embodiment,  nature's 
unity  is  completed,  —  Jew  and  Samaritan 
become  neis^hbors  or  near-dwellers  indeed. 
Now,  as  Jesus  said,  upon  this  organic  law 
of  love  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets, 
for  organic  love  is  like  the  full  corn  in  the 
ear ;  it  is  reproductive ;  the  whole  field  of 
nature  belongs  to  it,  and  it  is  an  all-em- 
bracing force.  It  coordinates  all  recipro- 
cal facts  and  forces ;  it  establishes  all  cor- 
relations ;  it  awakens  all  natural  potencies ; 
it  begets  everywhere  its  own  image  and 
likeness ;  it  seizes  the  ground  with  its 
roots ;  it  extirpates  every  evil  and  hateful 
growth.  Thus  one  true  neighbor,  carry- 
ing neighborhood  in  look  and  voice  and 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.       2/ 

hand,  —  one  neighbor  who  cannot  be  over- 
come by  evil  treatment,  or  frozen  by  indif- 
ference, —  begets  at  last  a  community  of 
neighbors,  for,  Hke  a  true  kernel  of  corn, 
he  breaks  up  the  clods  and  establishes  the 
reciprocities.  This  is  the  natural  law  of 
love.  A  natural  law  is  the  method  in 
which  a  natural  force  acts.  The  natural 
force  of  love  is  feeling.  When  a  man  is 
touched  by  the  living  organism  of  love, 
when  he  comes  in  contact  with  a  true 
neighbor,  the  feeling  of  love  is  awakened. 

This  is  a  perfectly  natural  process ;  it  is 
as  natural  as  is  the  feeling  of  pain  at  a 
pin's  prick,  or  gratification  at  the  taste  of 
food.  But  at  that  point  natural  law  stops; 
it  stops  because  the  natural  force  of  love 
can  go  no  further.  It  has  come  to  the 
boundary  line  of  personal  freedom.  Within 
that  line  nothing  can  be  necessitated.  The 
natural  force  here  takes  on  a  new  function; 
it  no  longer  necessitates,  it  appeals.  Here, 
in  this  realm  of  liberty,  sits  enthroned  the 
will.  Love  may  constrain  the  feelings, 
may  shake  the  nerve  centres  with  emo- 
tion, may  draw  unwilling  tears,  but  it  can- 
not force  the  will.      The  will  can   resist 


2S       RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

love,  can  harden  the  feelings  to  it,  can 
string  the  nerves  against  it,  can  refuse  to 
let  it  get  possession  of  the  organism.  A 
man  can  by  the  effort  of  his  will  preoc- 
cupy his  organic  sensibilities  with  animal 
passion  and  selfish  absorption,  so  as  at  last 
to  make  them  impervious  to  the  force  of 
love.  Like  the  priest  and  the  Levite,  he 
can  pass  by  on  the  other  side.  This  is  what 
is  called  in  the  Scripture  "  the  hardening 
of  the  heart."  It  seems  probable  that  such 
a  hardened  and  insensitive  organism  may 
also  be  passed  along  by  heredity.  Such 
is  the  scope  of  the  free  will. 

It  may,  on  the  other  hand,  respond  to 
the  appeal  of  love  and  cultivate  its  organic 
forms,  until  the  entire  organism  becomes 
filled  with  a  joyous  sensitiveness  and  with 
all  the  vitality  of  love.  Love  is  therefore, 
in  all  its  forms,  the  result  of  intelligent 
cultivation  by  the  will.  This  is  its  glory 
and  its  value,  that  it  is  the  product  of  a 
free  choice.  It  is  in  this  respect  unlike 
passion  and  appetite.  Passion  and  appe- 
tite are  natural  forces  proceeding  from  the 
animal  sensibilities.  They  at  first  only 
appeal  to  the  will,  but  if   over  cultivated 


RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE.       29 

they  have  a  tendency  to  necessitate  and 
enslave  it.  This,  however,  is  not  the  case 
with  moral  love.  When  it  approaches 
the  will  it  stops  with  its  mute  appeal.  It 
stands  with  its  touch  of  life,  offering  to 
give  life,  but  it  does  not  offer  to  enchain. 
It  addresses  itself,  however,  to  the  intel- 
lectual powers,  to  the  reason  and  the  con- 
science, for  these  are  regulative ;  they  assist 
freedom.  To  them,  therefore,  love  appeals. 
It  takes  the  form  of  moral  law.  It  holds 
up  rewards  and  penalties.  It  speaks  with 
supreme  authority,  as  being  recognizably 
the  noblest  element  of  our  being.  It  com- 
mands :  Thou  shalt  love. 

But  who  is  the  original  neighbor^ the 
eternal  nigh-dweller,  whose  sympathy  with 
mankind  is  not  merely  a  potency,  but  a 
tide  of  feeling,  ever  fresh  and  vast  and 
buoyant,  ever  putting  itself  forth  in  newer 
organism,  in  deeper  tone  of  love,  in  gen- 
tler ways,  in  larger  gifts,  —  that  nigh- 
dweller  whose  sympathy  cannot  be  over- 
come by  hate  or  quenched  by  neglect, 
whose  love  begets  all  other  loves,  whose 
living  embodiments  awaken  all  potencies, 
establish  all  reciprocities  and  build  up  all 


30       RELATION  OF  GOD    TO  NATURE. 

unities?  Beyond  all  doubt  there  is  such 
a  neighbor,  one  who  is  with  us  in  nature, 
who  belongs  to  the  same  category.  The 
infinite  tide  of  his  feeling  is  the  natural 
force  of  love.  It  is  the  force  on  which 
all  others  hang,  with  which  all  are  coordi- 
nated. This  declaration,  the  glad  tidings 
of  this  Eternal  Nigh-dweller,  is  the  heart 
of  Christ's  gospel.  But,  for  Him,  the  word 
"  neighbor "  is  not  enough ;  he  is  the  be- 
getter of  all  neighborly  feeling,  the  one 
from  whom  all  near -dwelling  proceeds: 
therefore  Jesus  calls  Him  the  Father. 


CHAPTER   II. 

OUR    NEAREST    RELATIVE. 

I.   The  Supreme  Law  of  Righteonsness. 

In  the  previous  chapter  we  saw  that  the 
great  central  truth  of  Christ's  teaching  was 
the  unity  between  the  natural  and  super- 
natural. Doubtless  some  people  will  ob- 
ject to  this  statement ;  they  will  say  that 
the  great  central  truth  of  Christ's  teaching 
was  the  personal  disclosure  of  God.  It  is 
quite  true  that  it  was  a  personal  disclo- 
sure rather  than  an  abstract  idea.  The 
personal  disclosure  is  the  larger  element  — 
it  is  the  one  on  which  religion  feeds.  But 
Christ's  personal  disclosure  of  God  was 
the  disclosure  of  his  fatherhood ;  and  that 
idea  of  divine  fatherhood,  viewed  in  the 
light  of  modern  science,  stands  for  organic 
unity  between  God  and  man,  and,  as  we 
have  seen,  to  the  mind  of  Jesus  it  stood 
for  the  same  thing.  But  if  there  be  an 
organic    unity   between    God    and    man, 


32  OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE. 

surely  it  is  impossible  to  stop  at  that 
point,  for  man  is  a  unity  with  the  nature 
about  him.  Unity  between  God  and  man 
necessarily  includes  a  unity  between  God's 
world  and  man's  world.  Furthermore,  it' 
so  happens  at  this  time  that  the  particular 
difficulty  with  which  Christianity  has  to 
deal  in  men's  minds  grows  out  of  the  way 
in  which  God's  relation  to  Nature  is  pre- 
sented, or,  in  other  words,  out  of  a  false 
supernaturalism.  It  is  therefore  of  the 
utmost  consequence  that  we  should  grasp 
with  a  clear  and  strong  hold  the  abstract 
idea  of  the  supernatural  contained  in 
Christ's  disclosure  of  God,  particularly  its 
moral  significance. 

It  would  be  impossible  out  of  the  whole 
vocabulary  of  language  to  select  a  term 
more  expressive  of  nature's  correlations 
than  the  word  "  Father."  Yet  theology 
has  largely  emptied  it  of  its  meaning. 
The  father  is  bound  to  the  son  by  the  tie 
of  organic  feeling ;  he  cannot  help  suffering 
with  and  for  his  child,  unless  by  the  hard- 
ening power  of  the  will  he  steels  himself 
against  nature.  In  David's  lament  over  Ab- 
salom, the  Jews  had  a  correct  and  accepted 


OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE.  33 

portrayal  of  fatherhood  drawn  to  the  life. 
The  true  father's  heart  is  there  seen,  neces- 
sitated by  nature's  law,  to  suffer  under  the 
sins  of  the  child.  We  may  criticise  his 
indulgence  of  the  feeling,  but  its  exist- 
ence was  normal.  It  was  the  law  of  or- 
ganic unity  that  wrung  from  David's  heart 
that  cry,  "  Would  God  I  had  died  for  thee, 
O  Absalom,  my  son."  Let  a  man  read  that 
story  and  weigh  well  the  meaning  which 
the  word  "  Father  "  had  in  the  teaching  of 
the  Old  Testament.  And  when  Christ 
used  the  word  he  used  it  for  all  it  was 
worth  ;  it  carried  this  organic  unity  to  the 
very  heart  of  God.  It  branded  as  a  lie 
that  conception  of  God  which  puts  Him 
beyond  the  realm  of  natural  emotion. 

Just  precisely  as  an  earthly  child's  moral 
relationship  to  his  father  has  its  tap-root 
deep  in  the  natural  relationship,  so  is  it 
between  man  and  God.  In  this  potential 
unity  of  God  with  man  lies  the  foundation 
of  moral  law.  In  the  heart  of  the  Infinite 
Father  and  Near-dweller  is  the  fount  of 
goodness  and  the  ground  of  authority,  be- 
cause He  can  but  feel  for  us,  can  but  be 
pierced  with   our   sins  and   suffer   under 


34  OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE. 

our  pain.  Yea,  because  no  neglect  extin- 
guishes his  love,  and  no  offense  over- 
comes it,  because  the  tokens  of  his  grace 
are  new  every  morning  and  fresh  every 
evening,  because  in  his  love  lies  all  our 
higher  vitality,  because  it  can  coordinate 
us  with  all  that  is  good  and  deliver  us 
from  all  that  is  evil,  because,  in  short,  all 
neighborhood  hangs  upon  it ;  therefore  the 
first  and  greatest  demand  of  our  moral 
nature  is,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  with  all  thy  soul, 
with  all  thy  mind,  with  all  thy  strength.'' 
Thou  shalt  respond  with  every  reciprocity 
of  thy  being  to  the  love  of  God,  for  in 
this  response  to  God's  love  lies  the  or- 
ganic vitality  of  all  other  love.  To  deny 
it  is  to  deny  one's  own  highest  nature. 
Upon  these  two  commandments  hung  all 
the  law  and  the  prophets.  All  merely 
conventional  righteousness  was  to  Jesus  a 
corpse.  It  did  not  have  the  vitality  of  the 
divine  love.  It  was  not  a  real  doer  in  the 
world,  but  a  hypocrite,  playing  a  theatrical 
part  upon  the  stage  ;  so  when  Jesus  strove 
against  sin,  he  unmasked  this  hypocrisy, 
showed  what  a  whited  sepulchre  it  was, 


OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE.  35 

and  held  up  over  against  it  the  true  right- 
eousness, based  on  these  great  organic  uni- 
ties. So,  too,  when  Jesus  taught  morality, 
he  did  it  by  teaching  unity;  he  held  up 
the  words  of  unity  and  extended  them. 

Thus  he  rescued  morality,  by  taking 
its  questions  out  of  the  field  of  abstract 
thought  into  the  realm  of  natural  feeling. 
Instead  of  arguing  with  men,  he  reached 
out  after  their  hearts  with  allegories, 
and  revived  their  human  sympathies  by 
touches  of  nature  that  led  them  to  feel 
their  kinship  with  one  another  and  with 
God.  Thus,  also,  he  extended  the  term 
"  neighbor,"  till  it  took  in  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men.  Coordinating  men  with 
God,  as  children  of  one  Father,  he  coordi- 
nated them  with  one  another  as  brethren, 
and  thus  carried  them  up  into  a  higher 
unity,  while  he  deepened  love  by  opening 
up  its  scope  and  source  and  natural  law. 
Seeking  to  uplift  and  purify  man's  motive 
of  action,  he  presents  God  as  a  watchful 
parent  whose  sympathetic  eye  is  never  off 
his  child,  who  shares  that  child's  darkest 
obscurity,  his  utmost  desolation,  and  the 
innermost  life  of  his  soul.     He  urges  men 


36  OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE, 

to  winnow  their  conduct  from  all  super- 
ficial conventional  motives,  to  take  heed 
that  their  good  acts  are  indeed  embodi- 
ments of  this  divine  reciprocity,  —  that  they 
are  done  for  this  Father  who  seeth  in 
secret,  —  and  to  seek  the  pure  reward  of 
his  fatherly  love. 

In  the  same  way  he  rescues  prayer  from 
the  dreary  fog  into  which  theology  had  car- 
ried it.  He  recognizes  it  as  a  duty.  God 
will  reward  it  as  such,  but  it  is  a  filial  duty. 
It  has  its  tap-root  in  a  natural  relation,  that 
of  sonship.  It  is  the  dutiful  cultivation  of 
a  natural  tie,  and  its  reward  is  a  father's  re- 
ward, bestowed  not  upon  a  mere  perform- 
ance, but  upon  the  organism  of  a  filial, 
spirit.  It  is  this  unfolding  organism  of  unity 
which  is  outwardly  blessed  by  the  Father 
who  seeth  in  secret.  So,  too,  Jesus  urges 
men  to  prayer  by  sketching  in  a  vivid  way 
God's  sensibility.  He  lays  down  a  broad 
principle.  Every  one  that  asketh  receiveth, 
he  says ;  that  is  a  fact  of  the  natural  world. 
Why?  Because  of  human  unity;  all  men 
have  some  degree  of  sensibility,  therefore 
they  are  moved  by  an  appeal ;  if  they  are 
ungenerous,  still  this  organic  law  reaches 


OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE.  37 

them.  Take  even  the  worst  possible  case, 
an  unjust  judge,  who  fears  not  God,  neither 
regards  man  ;  even  he  yields  to  an  appeal 
made  by  a  poor  widow.  She  is  weak, 
insignificant,  but  she  worries  him.  He 
grants  her  request,  because  it  is  hard  to 
resist  this  law  of  unity,  or  lest,  as  he  ex- 
presses it,  by  her  continual  coming  she 
wear  me  away.  Or  take  the  case  of  a  man 
who  has  gone  to  bed,  and  whose  friend 
asks  him  to  rise  and  give  him  three  loaves. 
He  gets  his  request,  not  because  he  is  a 
friend,  but  because  of  his  importunity, 
which  importunity  is  a  persistent  appeal 
to  unity.  Even  a  man  in  bed  cannot 
escape  this  law.  Then  Jesus  takes  the 
case  of  a  father.  What  one  of  you  hav- 
ing a  son,  if  he  ask  bread,  will  give  him 
a  stone  ?  That  would  be  impossible,  he 
argues ;  even  you,  though  you  are  evil, 
he  adds  unflatteringly,  even  you  have  too 
much  sensibility,  even  you  know  too  well 
the  unity  between  you  and  your  children; 
you  are  not  so  stupid  as  to  hurt  your  own 
flesh  and  blood ;  and  is  not  your  heavenly 
Father  amenable  to  this  same  organic  law.f* 
Does  not  He,  from  whom  all  fatherhood 


38  OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE. 

proceeds,  whose  heart  is  neither  hardened 
nor  blinded  by  evil,  does  not  He  feel  and 
know  enough  to  give  good  things  to  those 
that  ask  Him  ?  He  may  indeed  refuse 
that  for  which  the  child  clamors  ;  He  may 
perceive  it  to  be  a  stone,  or  a  scorpion ; 
but  will  He  not  give  real  good  to  those 
that  ask  Him?  —  for  prayer  is  itself  the 
establishment  of  a  filial  reciprocity,  and 
those  that  pray  are  already  beginning  to 
be  children. 

II.    TJie  Gospel  of  the  Father. 

But  words  fail  in  telling  how  Jesus 
awakened  both  religion  and  morality  in 
men,  by  picturing  the  sympathy  of  God. 
This  is  his  gospel  of  the  Father.  It  is 
filled  with  the  endearing  terms  and  illus- 
trations of  unity,  yet  the  terms  would  be 
empty,  comparatively,  and  would  be  fruit- 
less, except  for  the  life  with  which  Jesus 
has  surcharged  them.  It  is  a  great  thing 
doubtless  to  be  taught  that  we  are  thus 
correlated  with  the  mysterious  source  of 
our  being,  that  God  has  an  eternal  feeling 
for  us,  and  that  we  have  a  potency  for 
feeling   God.      To  know  that   when   this 


OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE.  39 

Spark  of  sonship  is  wholly  undeveloped  or 
quenched  by  sin  He  would  fain  leave  the 
glory  of  his  heavenly  estate  to  rescue  this 
fallen  child;  to  know  that  God's  moral  law 
itself  and  even  its  penalties  have  their  root 
in  his  natural  affection  for  us ;  to  see  the 
veil  drawn  part  way  back  and  to  get  a 
glimpse  of  God's  natural  heart  in  the  para- 
ble of  the  prodigal  son ;  to  know  that  there 
is  joy  in  the  presence  of  the  angels  of  God 
over  one  sinner  that  repenteth,  ■ —  these 
ideas  are  indeed  like  life  from  the  dead. 
Even  though  they  were  but  a  philosophy, 
one  is  compelled  to  admit  that  they  alone 
solve  the  problem  of  righteousness.  But  as 
we  look  at  Jesus  we  are  startled  and  awe- 
struck by  the  perception  that  they  are  not 
a  product  of  his  ratiocination,  but  a  reality 
of  his  consciousness.  This  divine  feeling 
for  man,  this  infinite  sympathy,  this  hunger- 
ing of  God  after  man's  heart,  this  tenderness 
that  clings  to  man,  despite  sin  and  indiffer- 
ence, this  recognition  of  possible  sonship 
in  the  vilest;  all  these  supernatural  ele- 
ments we  see  stirring  tumultuously  in  the 
human  breast  of  Jesus,  contending  with 
the  natural  instinct   of  self-preservation; 


40  OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE. 

for  Jesus  is  not  the  cold,  one-sided,  intel- 
lectual type  of  man ;  he  is  the  complete,  im- 
passioned, royal  type.  His  intelligence  is 
vast  and  clear,  but  his  feeling  is  vaster  still 
and  clearer.  It  is  an  exalted  conscious- 
ness ;  by  it  he  touches  God,  he  knows 
God's  heart,  he  kindles  with  sympathy  for 
that  heart,  he  can  but  give  himself  up  to 
it.  He  loses  himself  thus ;  he  comes  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost,  to  be 
the  human  organism  and  embodiment  of 
this  divine  feeling  for  man.  It  makes  him  a 
man  of  sorrows ;  it  turns  his  life  into  a  trag- 
edy ;  surely  "  he  hath  carried  our  griefs." 
One  is  ready  to  kneel  down  when  he 
hears  Jesus  say,  out  of  this  pent-up  inner 
consciousness,  "  The  Father  hath  sent  me." 
Agony  and  joy  struggle  together  in  that 
phrase.  It  voices  the  same  truth  that  we 
hear  wrung  from  his  lips  in  his  great  ex- 
tremity, —  the  truth  that  this  supernatural- 
ism  was  not  the  creation  of  his  own  brain, 
nor  could  he  alone  endure  to  embody  it. 
He  was  in  far  mightier  hands,  —  hands 
that  could  not  be  turned  back  from  sacri- 
fice however  great:  hands  that  w^ere  able 
to  carry  him  through.     For  there  comes  a 


OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE.  41 

moment  when  even  Jesus  recoils.  "  Father, 
he  cries,  if  it  be  possible,  let  this  cup  pass 
from  me."  But  in  an  instant  it  is  over. 
He  has  felt  the  everlastins:  arms.  "  Not 
as  I  will,  but  as  thou  wilt.  Father,  into 
thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit."  To  the 
mind  of  Jesus  it  was  not  he  himself  who 
made  the  great  sacrifice.  It  was  the  Fa- 
ther who  so  loved  the  world  as  to  give 
his  only  begotten  son. 

That  Jesus  was  genuine  in  his  testi- 
mony to  his  own  consciousness  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  He  had  no  motive  for  being 
otherwise.  As  to  the  facts  of  that  con- 
sciousness, the  New  Testament  is  flooded 
with  them  ;  they  are  not  confined  to  any 
one  Gospel ;  they  are  present  on  every 
page.  However  mutilated,  fragmentary,  or 
interspersed  with  myths,  however  destitute 
of  miracles  the  Gospels  may  turn  out  to 
be,  one  thing  is  certain :  there  was  a  man, 
no  further  off  than  Galilee,  who  felt  God 
with  his  flesh  and  blood,  all  the  way  from 
his  peasant's  workshop  to  Calvary.  Nor 
did  his  clear  intellect  for  one  moment  fail 
to  see  the  bearing  of  this.  It  was  for  no 
small  thing  that  this  divine  feeling  made 


42  OUR  NEAREST  RELATIVE. 

him  the  burden-bearer  of  his  race.  He 
was  the  supreme  Organ  of  unity,  the  divine 
At-one-ment.  The  oneness  which  had  be- 
fore been  potential,  in  him  became  organic. 
In  him  God  and  man  were  coordinated. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    STEM    OF    RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

We  have  seen  with  what  moral  earnest- 
ness Jesus  took  up  this  question  of  super- 
naturalism,  how  clear  was  his  conviction 
that  all  moral  issues  had  their  solution  in 
this  organic  kingdom  of  God,  that  moral 
force  came  as  truly  under  the  operation  of 
natural  law  as  the  vegetative,  that  God's 
word  was  the  source  of  it,  and  that  the 
righteous  man  was  a  man  coordinated  with 
God.  We  have  seen,  too,  that  these  facts 
are  the  great  theme  of  the  first  three  Gos- 
pels. But  it  was  impossible  for  Jesus  to 
stop  here.  As  has  been  said,  his  own 
consciousness  of  the  Fatherhood,  and  his 
comprehension  of  the  Father's  purpose, 
compelled  him  to  recognize  in  himself  the 
great  organ  of  the  Word  for  that  coordi- 
nation. No  one  could  be  less  egotistic 
than  Jesus.  He  was  above  all  men  real- 
istic, profoundly  sensitive  to  the  wants  and 


44       THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

sufferings  of  men,  painfully  alive  to  their 
moral  necessities.  Above  all,  in  him  did 
the  stupendous  consciousness  of  the  Fa- 
ther dwarf  the  consciousness  of  self.  Yet 
by  the  very  stress  of  this  consciousness 
did  he  know  his  isolation.  There  was  no 
one  to  share  his  burden.  The  Gospels 
all  represent  him  as  beginning  his  minis- 
try by  preaching  that  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  was  at  hand.  And  this  preach- 
ing of  the  kingdom  very  clearly  implied 
his  own  sovereignty  and  responsibility. 
Nor  did  he  hesitate,  when  disciples  gath- 
ered about  him,  to  take  his  place  as  the 
supreme  spiritual  organ  of  the  Word.^ 
He  took  the  throne  at  the  outset.  From 
the  first  his  attitude  had  a, peculiar  maj- 
esty. He  stood  alone,  He  consulted  no 
one.  Nothing  surprised  him.  He  was  an 
enigma  to  all,  but  clear  to  himself.  He 
shared  his  joys,  but  never  his  plans.  His 
one  word  to  all  men  was,  Follow  me. 

Coordination  with  God  through  himself 


'&' 


^  All  things  have  been  delivered  to  me  of  my  Father, 
neither  doth  any  know  the  Father  save  the  Son  and  he 
to  whom  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  him.  —  Matt.  xi.  27. 

One  is  your  Master,  even  the  Christ.  —  Matt,  xxiii.  10. 


THE   STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       45 

he  declared  to  be  essential  to  moral  salva- 
tion. A  noticeable  instance  of  this  is  the 
case  of  the  young  ruler  who  came  to  him 
asking,  What  good  thing  shall  I  do  to  in- 
herit eternal  life  ?  With  a  profound  phi- 
losophy, which  reminds  one  of  the  fourth 
Gospel,  Jesus  repudiates  the  notion  of 
goodness  having  any  independent  exist- 
ence apart  from  God,  but  as  was  his  usual 
custom  with  the  educated  classes  refers 
him  to  the  law.  The  young  man  declares 
that  he  has  kept  all  the  commandments 
from  his  youth.  It  is  a  strange  case,  a 
pathetic  case ;  here  is  a  man  who  has  kept 
the  laws  of  life,  and  yet  he  is  unconscious 
of  the  life,  but  is  an  anxious  and  troubled 
seeker  after  it.  "  What  lack  I  yet  ?  "  he 
says.  There  is  something  very  curious 
about  this.  The  moral  law,  then,  is  not 
like  other  laws.  It  is  neither  natural  nor 
vital.  Jesus  discloses  the  trouble  in  a  word. 
"  One  thing  thou  lackest,"  he  says.  "  Sell 
whatsoever  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor, 
and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven," 
or,  in  other  words,  divine  capacity ;  "  and 
come,  take  up  the  cross,  and  follow  me."  ^ 

1  Mark  x.  21. 


46       THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

One  may  pick  a  lily  and  put  it  in  a  vase ; 
water  it,  yes,  and  put  its  native  earth  about 
it;  give  it  air  and  sunlight,  keep  the  bugs 
off  from  it,  treat  it  according  to  law,  keep 
the  law  for  it ;  what  will  it  all  avail  if  one 
neglects  the  one  great  law  by  which  the 
lily  lives,  the  law  of  organic  coordination  ? 
You  have  plucked  it  from  its  stem,  its 
mediator.  Plough  your  wheat  field  as 
much  as  you  will,  keep  it  harrowed  and 
untrodden,  what  will  it  avail  toward  life 
till  there  drops  into  it  the  kernel  of  wheat, 
nature's  mediator  that  is  to  coordinate  it 
with  life  ?  "  Follow  me,"  says  the  organ  of 
nature.  "  Cling  to  me,  give  yourself  up 
to  me.  Become  my  instruments,  charged 
with  my  life,"  says  the  tree  trunk  to  the 
branches ;  "  become  my  life  organs,  and 
God  will  give  you  life."  So  in  effect  did 
Jesus  say  to  the  young  ruler :  "  Eternal 
life,  —  it  is  the  true  eternal  humanity  com- 
ing from  the  bosom  of  God.  He  has 
surcharged  me  with  it,  that  I  might  give  it 
to  the  world.  Help  me,  share  my  struggle, 
become  the  organ  of  my  large  disburse- 
ments, and  as  you  are  organized  by  life, 
you  will  have  life." 


THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       47 

There  is  not  to  be  found  in  all  Christ's 
sayings  a  single  place  where  he  exalts  him- 
self as  an  arbitrary  mediator  or  formal 
vicegerent.  He  does  not  uphold  his  own 
supremacy  or  the  recognition  of  it  as  hav- 
ing any  value  per  se.  In  fact,  he  takes 
pains  to  declare  the  contrary.  He  sol- 
emnly avows  to  his  disciples  that  the  mere 
recognition  of  his  rank  amounts  to  no- 
thing ;  that  the  exaltation  of  him  as  Lord, 
and  even  the  accomplishment  of  wonders 
in  his  name  and  for  his  glorification  can- 
not avail  them  anything  in  the  day  of 
judgment.  His  headship  and  his  media- 
torship  were  organic,  not  formal.  Faith 
in  him  had,  indeed,  a  supreme  moral  value 
because  it  enabled  a  man  to  enter  into 
reciprocity  with  the  spiritual  world,  to  be- 
come a  partaker  of  its  moral  force,  and  to 
bring  forth  the  fruits  of  its  spiritual  right- 
eousness. It  was  superior  to  the  common 
w^orldly  conventional  righteousness,  just  as 
anything  that  is  natural  is  superior  to  what 
is  unnatural,  superficial,  and  conventional. 
It  was  the  only  righteousness  that  saved, 
precisely  as  it  is  only  nature  that  saves, 
while  going  contrary  to  nature  is  destruc- 


48       THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

tive.  To  follow  natural  law  is  to  walk  in 
a  pathway  of  salvation  ;  to  go  against 
natural  law  is  to  cast  one's  self  into  a  bot- 
tomless abyss  of  misery  and  self-destruc- 
tion. But  the  fundamental  law  of  all 
others  is  this  law  of  organic  coordination. 
According  to  Jesus,  it  extends  likewise  to 
the  moral  nature.  In  fact  the  insistence 
of  Jesus  upon  his  messiahship  as  he  viewed 
the  messiahship  was  simply  his  insistence 
on  the  universality  of  a  certain  natural  law 
and  of  certain  specific  functions.  Man's 
world  had  a  natural  reciprocity  with  God's 
world.  That  reciprocity  was  to  be  estab- 
lished by  the  development  of  certain  or- 
ganic functions  in  manhood.  Those 
functions  had  been  imperfectly  developed 
before.     In  him  they  were  fulfilled. 

It  may  be  objected  that  this  is  reading 
modern  thought  into  the  conception  of 
Jesus.  I  answer,  No.  It  is  simply  giving 
his  thought  its  modern  equivalent.  It  is 
a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  a  realistic 
conception  of  nature  depends  on  our  mod- 
ern forms  of  thought.  Human  concep- 
tions of  truth  are  not  so  dependent ;  they 
may  exist  even  without  language.     There 


THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       49 

have  been  lately  brought  to  light  several 
cases  of  deaf  mutes,  who,  without  written 
or  spoken  language  to  assist  them,  prior 
to  all  education  had  formed  conceptions 
on  all  the  great  phenomena  of  nature,  and 
apprehended  certain  well-known  principles, 
such  as  causation  and  moral  obligation. 
Nature  supplied  them  with  thought-stuff 
in  her  own  forms  and  symbols.  The  fact 
is,  nature  —  yes,  even  subjective  nature  — 
has  herself  a  language  ;  she  tells  her  own 
story,  she  herself  furnishes  to  the  human 
mind  the  original  norms  of  thought.  Given 
an  original  mind,  the  greatest  teacher  a 
man  can  have  is  an  inspired  and  sym- 
pathetic consciousness,  such  as  Words- 
worth describes  as  characteristic  of  his 
childhood.  An  original  genius  will  often 
thus  penetrate  immeasurably  beyond  the 
ideas  of  his  age,  reading  nature  like  an 
open  book.  Because  the  mind  of  Jesus 
grew  like  any  other  mind  under  the  envi- 
ronment of  his  age,  because  he  often  ex- 
pressed his  thought  in  Jewish  modes,  be- 
cause he  even  passed  through  Jewish 
phases  of  development,  we  are  not  to  infer 
that   his   mature    conceptions   were    thus 


50       THE   STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

limited  to  the  horizon  of  his  time.  To 
infer  this  is  to  ignore  altogether  the  power 
possessed  by  a  vast  and  sympathetic  con- 
sciousness to  choose  its  own  environment, 
penetrating  far  and  wide  into  the  infini- 
ties. 

Why  should  not  such  a  vast  and  origi- 
nal nature  have  read  nature  at  first  hand, 
and  spelled  out  her  unities  in  the  original 
terms  of  the  Creator  and  Father?  Un- 
questionably this  is  what  the  author  of  the 
fourth  Gospel  understood  him  to  do,  for 
he  represents  him  as  defining  his  head- 
ship and  mediatorship  by  an  illustration 
taken  from  nature.  "  I  am  the  vine,"  he 
says,  "  and  ye  are  the  branches.  Abide  in 
me  and  I  in  you.  Without  me  you  can 
do  nothing.  He  that  abideth  in  me,  the 
same  bringeth  forth  much  fruit.  If  a 
man  abide  not  in  me,  he  is  cast  forth  as 
a  branch  and  is  withered."  We  have  thus 
put  in  nature's  own  parable  and  in  the 
creator's  original  language  the  very  prin- 
ciple that  we  have  been  discussing.  And 
it  is  put  here  in  a  form  so  specific  as  to 
define  the  whole  situation.  The  branches 
and   the   vine   are  what  we   call   organs. 


THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       5  I 

An  organ  is  an  instrument  by  which  life 
is  coordinated  with  the  material  universe. 
The  branches  are  organs.  They  estab- 
lish reciprocities  between  that  mysterious 
invisible  thing  called  life  and  the  material 
forces  of  the  world.  But  they  can  do  no- 
thing without  a  central  organ,  the  vine, 
which  has  a  grand  specific  function  of  its 
own  for  all  the  branches,  mediating  be- 
tween them  and  the  earth.  The  vine 
does  not  get  between  the  branches  and 
the  earth.  It  does  not  interfere  in  any 
formal  way  between  the  branches  and  the 
earth.  It  does  not  obstruct  the  recipro- 
city ;  it  makes  it  more  complete.  It  is  in 
fact  a  branch  extension.  To  abide  in  the 
vine  is  to  be  coordinated  with  it  in  so 
vital  a  way  that  the  two  are  a  natural 
unity.  One  vital  force  pervades  them 
both.  For  the  branch  not  to  abide  in  the 
vine  is  to  obstruct  coordination  with  the 
vine.  Thus  the  branch  becomes  an  iso- 
lated fact  in  nature.  It  is  cut  off  from 
her  great  vital  currents,  dropped  out  of  her 
circle  of  unity.  It  is  then  in  a  position 
opposed  to  natural  law.  It  can  no  longer 
be  an  organ  of  vitality,  for  it  does  not  fulfill 


52       THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

the  law  of  vitality.  It  is  withered,  and 
this  withering  process  takes  place  despite 
the  fact  that  the  vine  has  already  done  its 
work  for  the  branch,  has  already  made  it 
to  be  a  branch,  has  imparted  to  it  specific 
functions,  has  already  put  it  in  direct  co- 
ordination with  heaven's  light  and  life  and 
sunshine.  Still  deep  in  the  structure  of 
things  there  remains  a  necessity  for  coor- 
dination with  the  vine.  Certain  organic 
necessities  are  supplied  by  the  vine,  with- 
out which  the  branches  cannot  have  direct 
reciprocities  with  the  skies. 

In  short,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  abso- 
lute individualism.  Nature's  life  is  a 
shared  life,  in  w^hich  certain  lesser  organs 
constitute  a  unity  with  larger  and  mightier 
organs.  Nor  is  there  any  such  thing 
as  an  organ  having  an  isolated  life,  or 
holding  independent  reciprocity  with  God. 
This  fact  is  sufficiently  clear  in  the  natu- 
ral world.  It  was  just  as  clear  in  Christ's 
day  as  in  our  day,  for  a  man  that  had  eyes 
to  see  it.  His  not  possessing  the  word 
"  organ,"  or  the  other  word,  "  coordination," 
could  not  keep  a  stupendous  and  original 
mind  from  seeing  the  fact  or  the  law,  nor 


THE   STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       53 

could  it  keep  him  from  seeing  that  it  ex- 
tended to  the  moral  world,  —  that  the 
moral  world  called  for  such  an  organ  of 
unification,  that  his  consciousness  of  God 
constituted  him  that  organ,  that  it  meant 
for  him  an  awful  burden  and  an  awful  joy. 
He  saw  the  bearings  of  the  moral  law,  he 
saw  the  dread  necessity  of  the  mora] 
world,  he  saw  no  eye  to  pity  and  no  arm 
to  save.  Therefore  his  own  eye  pitied 
and  he  saw  that  his  own  arm  was  ap- 
pointed to  bring  salvation.  With  the  im- 
periousness  of  a  divine  love,  he  called  on 
men  to  share  eternal  life,  to  follow  him 
and  be  put  in  touch  with  God,  even  as 
they  put  other  men  in  touch  with  God ;  as 
they  shared  the  sonship  they  themselves 
should  become  sons. 

As  is  seen  in  this  parable  of  the  branch 
and  the  vine,  Christ  used  the  preposition 
"  in  "  to  express  this  idea  of  organic  coor- 
dination with  another  organ,  or  with 
another  life.  And  this  same  mode  of 
expression  passed  into  the  current  phrase- 
ology of  the  apostles,  particularly  of  the 
ap'ostle  Paul,  who,  more  than  any  other 
of    the    apostles,    grasped    hold    of    and 


54       THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

expanded  this  organic  view  of  Jesus.  To 
be  in  Christ  was  to  be  in  organic  coordina- 
tion with  Christ.  To  have  Christ  in  one 
was  to  have  Christ's  moral  vitahty  thor- 
oughly coordinated  with  one's  life  and 
conduct,  so  that  both  were  actually  per- 
vaded by  the  divine  influence.  So, 
likewise,  to  be  "  in  the  flesh "  signified 
sometimes,  but  not  always,  a  state  of  vol- 
untary coordination  with  the  hereditary 
passions  of  the  race,  so  that  one  became  a 
natural  type  or  organ  of  the  race's  ani- 
malism. 

Salvation,  or  righteousness,  from  this 
standpoint  consisted  in  being  delivered 
from  this  lower  organic  unity,  and  being 
brought  into  the  higher  unity  of  God. 
This  occurs  in  the  last  prayer  of  Jesus  on 
the  eve  of  crucifixion.  Here  the  whole 
tide  of  his  life  purpose  wells  forth.  He 
prays  for  unity,  first  of  all  for  the  unity  of 
his  disciples.  Keep  them,  he  says,  that 
they  may  be  one,  even  as  we  are.  While 
I  was  with  them,  he  says,  I  kept  them. 
He  likewise  states  the  instrument  through 
which  he  kept  them,  namely,  "  thy  word." 
This  medium  of  unity  is  also  the  medium 


THE  STEM   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       55 

of  sanctification.  In  fact,  the  sanctifica- 
tion  itself  is,  as  we  see  at  the  end  of  the 
prayer,  simply  the  perfected  unity.  The 
holiness  is  simply  the  wholeness  of  a  man, 
through  his  establishment  in  that  organic 
unity  to  which  he  belongs.  Till  he  enters 
that  unity  he  is  not  a  whole  man.  He  is 
not  whole  without  Christ,  any  more  than  a 
branch  is  whole  without  the  vine.  Jesus 
goes  on  to  pray  for  those  who,  as  he  ex- 
presses it,  "  shall  believe  on  me  through 
their  word,"  that  they  all  may  enter  this 
unity,  "  as  thou,  Father,  art  in  me,  and  I 
in  thee,  that  they  also  may  be  one  in  us." 
The  oneness  for  which  he  prays  here  is 
not  oneness  of  substance  with  God.  It  is 
the  same  kind  of  oneness  with  God  that 
he  had  himself,  as  a  human  organ,  —  the 
unity  of  reciprocal  vitalities.  The  branch 
is  not  the  same  thing  as  the  vine,  it  does 
not  occupy  the  same  position,  it  does  not 
have  the  same  function,  it  never  will.  The 
vine  is  not  of  the  same  substance  with  the 
earth.  There  is  an  essential  difference  be- 
tween it  and  the  earth,  and  always  will  be. 
Yet  the  branch  may  be  one  with  the  vine, 
as  the  vine  is  one  with  the  earth. 


56       THE   STEM   OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

There  is  a  oneness  of  life  and  recipro- 
city, not  a  oneness  of  identity ;  and  it  is 
this  oneness  of  perfect  moral  reciprocity 
with  the  Father  and  himself  to  which 
Christ  calls  men.  Christ  as  a  human 
being  was  a  perfect  organ  of  God's  moral 
vitality  for  mankind.  Men  are  capable 
of  coordination  with  him.  The  question 
whether  Jesus  had  another  and  a  higher 
form  of  unity  with  God  is  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent affair,  nor  do  I  propose  to  take  it 
up  in  this  place.  An  eternal  unity  of  sub- 
stance with  the  Father  is  an  entirely  dif- 
ferent thing  from  the  unity  of  organic 
coordination  with  him.  The  unity  that 
Christ  urges  men  to  share  with  him  is  the 
latter.  It  is  a  natural  as  well  as  a  practi- 
cal thing,  and  if  once  secured  constitutes 
the  only  solid  standpoint  from  which  the 
higher  and  subtler  question  can  be  dis- 
cussed. Jesus  himself  declares  that  this 
organic  unity  of  his  disciples  constitutes 
the  real  evidence  for  the  truth  of  Christian- 
ity, and  of  his  having  been  sent  from  the 
Father,  whatever  that  latter  expression 
may  mean.  In  fact,  the  real  difficulty  that 
men  have  found  with  Christ's  mediatorial 


THE  STEM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS.       5/ 

headship  lies  in  the  formal  and  non-natural 
way  in  which  it  has  been  presented,  and 
also  in  the  tendency  to  view  the  individual 
man  as  constituting  a  whole  by  himself, 
whereas  there  is  no  such  thing  in  God's 
organic  universe  as  individualistic  whole- 
ness or  vitality.  It  is  strange  indeed  that 
men  should  reject  Christ's  idea,  w^hich  is 
the  truly  scientific  one,  in  religion,  and 
should  cling  to  the  individualistic  notion 
in  morals,  when  it  has  long  ago  been  ex- 
ploded everywhere  else. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    GOSPEL    OF    THE    BODY. 

It  may  be  said  that  it  is  an  easy  thing 
to  read  a  certain  philosophy  of  nature  into 
the  teaching  of  one  who,  Hke  Jesus,  left 
no  direct  philosophic  statements  to  trip 
up  one's  theory.  There  is,  however,  a  test 
that  ought  to  be  conclusive  ;  that  test  lies 
in  the  position  which  Christ  gave  in  his 
system  to  the  human  body.  I  say,  his  sys- 
tem, because  there  was  a  system  in  his 
teaching,  as  there  is  in  the  movement  of 
the  stars  or  the  growth  of  the  forest.  If 
you  find  the  underlying  principle,  all  his 
revelations  are  consistent  with  one  an- 
other. Now  the  question  is,  did  he  give 
the  human  body  the  position  in  his  teach- 
ings and  life  that  must  belong  to  it  in 
such  an  organic  scheme  of  the  two  worlds  .f* 
Undoubtedly  he  held  that  he  himself,  in 
his  personal  entirety,  was  the  stem  through 
which  God's  word  operated  on  the  world. 


THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY.  59 

Furthermore,  he  must  have  held  that  this 
operation  was  to  continue  not  only  through 
his  earthly  life,  but  through  his  death,  re- 
surrection, his  coming  to  judgment,  and 
final  reign  over  men.  These  different  ex- 
tensions of  his  staminate  function  he  fre- 
quently dwelt  upon,  and  indeed  upon 
oath,  before  the  High  Priest,  declared  not 
only  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  but  that 
he  should  come  in  the  clouds  of  heaven. 
But  in  all  these  conceptions,  the  body  or 
physical  nature  of  the  Christ  is  put  promi- 
nently forward  by  him,  as  the  organism 
through  whose  progressive  development 
the  world  was  to  be  coordinated  with  the 
word  of  God.  But  this  idea  involved  a 
similar  notion  for  the  human  body  in 
general.  "  The  servant  must  be  as  his 
master ; "  the  disciple  must  correspond  to 
his  Lord ;  what  was  true  of  the  stem  must 
be  true  of  the  branches.  If  his  own  body 
was  an  organ  of  spiritual  coordination 
with  all  men,  then  surely  all  men's  bodies 
must  be  capable  of  taking  on  such  a  unity. 
This  put  the  body  into  the  category  of 
the  supernatural,  and  made  of  it  a  divine 
organ. 


6o     THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY. 

Some  of  the  world  religions  have  had  a 
glimmering  of  this  truth,  and  have  deified 
the  body ;  they  have  even  gone  so  far  as 
to  worship  the  reproductive  powers,  but  in 
doing  this  they  have  destroyed  the  moral 
nature,  sinking  it  deep  in  the  mire  of 
natural  passion.  Others,  like  the  Essenes 
in  Christ's  time,  have  found  refuge  only 
by  reacting  from  naturalism  altogether. 
Nature  has  seemed  to  them  an  evil,  the 
body  a  thing  to  be  trampled  under  foot,  or 
wasted  away,  in  order  to  give  place  to  the 
spirit.  In  short,  the  material  world  must 
be  reduced  to  nonentity  in  order  that  the 
spiritual  world  might  take  its  true  place. 
We  still  have  among  us  the  apostles  of 
this  view  in  a  class  of  people  who  think 
that  the  way  to  be  spiritual  is  to  deny 
and  abjure  the  material.  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  no  one  but  Jesus  ever  successfully 
solved  the  problem  of  the  body.  He 
solved  it  by  treating  the  body  exactly  as  it 
should  be  treated,  if  it  be  indeed  the  nat- 
ural organ  of  the  spiritual  world.  If  that 
be  the  case,  then  the  evil  of  it  is  not  to  be 
conquered  by  such  a  vain  process  as  deny- 
ing its  real  existence,  or  reducing  its  valua- 


THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY.  6 1 

tion  to  zero  point,  still  less  by  crushing  it 
or  wasting  it  away,  but  by  putting  it  to  its 
normal  use,  by  determinedly  wresting  it 
from  false  and  base  coordinations,  by  mak- 
ing it  the  organ  of  God's  spirit,  and  so 
bringing  it  into  the  unity  of  the  spiritual 
world.  And  it  was  precisely  this  position 
that  Jesus  took.  This  was  the  way  in 
which  he  dealt  with  his  own  body.  He 
acted  as  though  it  had  an  eternal  recipro- 
city with  the  spiritual  world.  He  used  it 
not  as  the  mean  instrument  of  pleasure  or 
of  earthly  gain,  but  as  the  instrument  by 
which  to  radiate  forth  the  glory  of  God. 
He  developed  it  to  the  uttermost  in  this 
direction  ;  he  made  it  a  medium  for  the 
mightiest  spiritual  and  salvatory  forces. 
Thus  the  body  of  Jesus  was  to  him  a 
means  of  the  highest  joy.  He  was  not 
ascetic  ;  he  did  not  abjure  the  dinner  table 
or  the  wedding  feast;  he  practised  no 
austerities  or  penance.  He  was  tortured 
with  no  perplexities  as  to  the  amount 
of  his  bodily  indulgence.  It  was  a  small 
question  to  him  whether  he  ate  at  the 
table  of  a  wealthy  man  or  sat  unfed  by  the 
well  of  Samaria.     His  physical  organism 


62  THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY. 

was  strung  to  higher  ends ;  it  vibrated  to 
grander  joys.  He  proved  beyond  cavil 
that  the  body  is  not  so  mean  a  thing  as 
we  have  thought  it.  It  had  meat  to  eat 
that  we  knew  not  of  till  Jesus  found  it  and 
shared  it  with  us. 

It  is  true  that  Jesus  did  at  times  have 
mighty  conflicts  with  the  body,  but  they 
were  practical  struggles.  They  did  not 
aim  at  the  absurd  and  hopeless  end  of 
crushing  the  organism  that  God  had 
given.  Therefore  his  struggles  were  fol- 
lowed by  no  reactions ;  they  succeeded  in 
their  purpose,  because  their  purpose  was 
in  a  line  with  nature.  Thus  he  fasted  in 
the  wilderness  forty  days,  but  it  did  not 
end  in  fasting.  It  did  not  issue  in  a 
physical  organization  crushed  and  bound 
with  the  fetters  of  austere  living.  It 
issued  in  a  physical  nature  singularly 
large  and  free.  It  was  the  greatest  char- 
acteristic of  Jesus  that  he  was  alive.  So 
large  was  Christ's  way  of  living,  so  full 
was  his  pulse,  so  free  was  his  step,  that 
narrow  critics  called  him  a  glutton  and 
winebibber,  a  frequenter  of  low  places,  a 
keeper  of  bad  company.     His  fasting   in 


THE   GOSPEL    OF  THE   BODY.  63 

the  wilderness  was  aimed  to  subdue  all 
abnormal  relations,  and  to  bring  his  body 
to  its  normal  function.  When  he  came 
out  he  was  full  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  the 
powers  of  the  heavenly  world  were  upon 
him,  because  his  vitalities  were  perfectly 
developed,  perfectly  subordinated,  and  per- 
fectly coordinated  with  the  spiritual  world. 
He  was  ready  for  his  work,  and  his  body 
enjoyed  the  w^ork.  It  was  the  pivotal 
thing  in  the  work,  for  the  characteristic 
feature  of  Christ's  work  was  the  power  he 
exerted  through  bodily  contact ;  the  glance 
of  his  eye,  the  tone  of  his  voice,  the  tourh 
of  his  hand,  were  magnetic.  They  vi- 
brated with  life,  they  started  men  to  life, 
they  awoke  bodily  response,  they  thrilled 
men's  nerves,  they  bound  their  throbbing 
hearts  to  him,  they  healed,  they  sanctified ; 
his  flesh  and  blood  seemed  surcharged 
with  spiritual  force.  His  bodily  presence 
carried  health,  it  radiated  love  and  light 
and  purity.  He  sought  contact,  always 
contact,  even  with  the  lowest.  It  was  for 
this  that  he  sat  down  to  eat  with  outcasts, 
for  this  he  dined  with  the  Pharisee  that 
scorned   him.     Even   the  leper  felt   upon 


64  THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY. 

his  loathsome  flesh  that  comforting  touch. 
In  fact,  Christ's  hope  rested  mainly  on  his 
bodily  contact  with  humanity.  Truth  of 
the  kind  he  taught  was  non-vital,  except  as 
it  was  embodied.  This  feeling  of  God  for 
man  w^as  a  truth  that  had  no  unifying 
force,  except  as  it  became  organic.  It 
was  inseparable  from  flesh  and  blood. 
The  animal  man  must  realize  it  through 
animal  sight  and  touch.  It  must  be  coor- 
dinated with  the  fleshly  sensibilities.  It 
must  be  felt  at  the  nerve  centres.'  More- 
over, with  his  amazing  insight  into  cause 
and  effect,  he  saw  how  this  was  to  be 
brought  about.  As  he  surveyed  the 
malignant  faces  that  ofttimes  scowled  on 
him,  he  knew  that  his  soul  was  among 
lions.  He  foresaw  the  issue  of  this 
bodily  contact  with  a  wicked  hierarchy,  a 
fickle  mob,  and  a  politic  Roman  governor. 
He  saw  himself  hanging  like  any  common 
criminal  on  the  Roman  Cross,  his  body 
broken,  his  blood  shed.  He  looked  up- 
ward, but  he  saw  no  deliverance  there ;  no 
old-time  miracle  could  break  the  path  of 
natural  causation  which  he  trod,  he,  the 
real  unifier,  and  therefore  Redeemer.     He 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY.  65 

must  be  delivered  into  the  hands  of  sinful 
men,  but  through  that  very  real  and  ter- 
rible contact  with  flesh  and  blood,  he  saw 
that  the  Father  would  effect  a  unity  with 
mankind,  and  he  rejoiced.  He  took  the 
cup  and  gave  thanks. 

His  mind  dwelt  on  God's  method  in 
nature.  He  surveyed  the  unvarying  plan 
by  which  God  develops  unities  there. 
His  imagination  fastened  on  the  corn  of 
wheat,  God's  organ  of  physical  mediation 
between  vegetative  life  and  the  inert 
atoms  of  the  soil.  God  gives  life,  he 
thought,  only  by  contact  with  an  organ  of 
life,  by  contact  even  unto  death.  Except 
the  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and 
die,  it  abideth  alone,  an  isolated  helpless 
thing  in  the  midst  of  nature  ;  but  if  by 
contact  with  the  destroying  earth  it  dies, 
then  it  brings  forth  much  fruit.  It  be- 
comes the  unifying  and  vivifying  centre  of 
new  vitalities.  So  it  is  in  the  moral 
world,  he  reasoned.  Spiritual  love  can 
only  be  made  to  tell  upon  the  universe 
through  the  sacrifice  of  the  body,  which  is 
its  organ.  When  men  have  slain  my  body, 
then  they  will  know  the  love  wherewith 


^(y  THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY. 

God  has  loved  them.  Then  will  it  awake 
in  them  organic  love;  then  will  they  have 
a  true  humanity,  an  organism  in  which 
the  Father's  spirit  can  dwell,  as  the  sun- 
shine dwells  in  the  grape.  Then  shall  I 
drink  with  them  the  new  wine  in  my 
Father's  kingdom.  His  mind  dwelt  on 
this  until  he  felt  first  calmness,  and  then 
exaltation.  What  had  seemed  a  terrible 
evil  ceased  to  be  an  evil  at  all.  As  the 
earth  by  organic  contact  devours  the  seed, 
and  so  gets  the  vitality  out  of  it,  thus  must 
these  men  devour  my  flesh  and  blood,  that 
they  may  find  the  vitality  of  God's  spirit. 
For  the  sake  of  the  future  he  asserted  this 
truth,  saying  prophetically  to  the  wolf-like 
mob  about  him,  "  Except  ye  eat  the  flesh 
and  drink  the  blood  of  the  Son  of  man,  ye 
have  no  life  in  you."  ^  Their  unspiritualized 
and  literal  minds  rebelled  at  this  gospel  of 
the  body.  That  a  man's  flesh  should  be 
given  them  to  eat,  seemed  monstrous ;  that 
it  should  be  called  bread  from  heaven, 
appeared  profane.  So  little  did  they  read 
nature's  wondrous  symbolism.  He  tried 
to  make  them  understand  that  it  was  this 

1  John  vi.  53. 


THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY,  67 

coordination  of  his  body  with  God's  spirit 
that  made  it  Hfegiving.  "  It  is  the  spirit 
that  does  the  quickening,"  he  said.  "  Do 
you  not  see,  the  words  that  I  speak  to  you 
are  not  mere  sound;  they  are  the  vehicle 
of  a  subtle  element,  they  are  spirit,  and 
they  are  life." 

It  was  in  vain.  P/Lany  of  his  disciples 
forsook  him  for  that  prophecy.  From 
that  day  to  this,  an  absurd  construction 
has  been  put  upon  it  by  many  religious 
thinkers.  But  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  was 
the  doctrine  of  nature,  the  doctrine  that 
we  universally  recognize  in  the  cultiva- 
tion of  our  fields,  that  lifeless  material 
must  be  coordinated  with  life,  by  the  sac- 
rifice of  a  life  organ.  That  is  the  law  of 
biogenesis.  It  is  the  truth  which  we  are 
more  and  more  coming  to  discern,  as  the 
foundation  of  all  higher  unities,  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  the  mother  gives  moral  life 
to  her  child,  by  which  the  hero  vitalizes 
his  country,  and  the  martyr  his  church ; 
and  to  the  last,  Jesus  adhered  to  his  doc- 
trine. He  exalted  the  body.  He  taught 
men  not  to  destroy  it,  not  to  needlessly 
exhaust  its  energies,  but  to  make  the  most 


6S  THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY. 

of  it,  as  the  organ  both  of  man's  own 
spirit  and  of  God's  spirit,  and  the  organ 
for  spiritual  unity  for  mankind.  And 
from  the  very  first,  he  called  upon  his  dis- 
ciples to  take  up  their  cross,  viz.,  to 
share  in  that  noble  devotion  of  the  body 
to  the  ends  of  spiritual  life.  That  is  the 
true  and  reasonable  doctrine  of  the  cross, 
and  wherever  it  is  held  up,  if  it  be  rightly 
understood,  it  signifies  the  religion  of 
organic  nature,  as  against  the  forms  of 
religion  that  are  hopeless  and  non-natural. 
Christ's  gospel  of  the  body  produced 
two  results.  In  the  first  place,  it  awak- 
ened in  those  about  him  a  kind  of  faith 
such  as  is  rare  in  our  day,  if  it  exists  at 
all.  It  sprung  from  immediate  bodily  con- 
tact with  himself.  It  might  properly  be 
called  physical,  for  it  came  not  from  the 
intellect  or  moral  nature  alone.  These 
elements  indeed  existed  and  were  domi- 
nant in  it,  but  with  them  was  intertwined 
another  strand.  It  was  the  physical  sense 
of  God's  presence,  felt  by  the  body  as  it 
feels  sunshine  or  electricity.  Thus,  as  the 
apostles  expressed  it,  the  body  became  the 
temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost.     The  nervous 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY.  69 

system  itself  felt  the  tone  of  God's  love. 
It  is  true  that  with  the  death  of  the  apos- 
tles who  had  bodily  contact  with  Christ 
this  physical  faith  did  almost  entirely  pass 
away;  but  the  portrait  of  it,  the  gospel 
of  it,  remains,  and  slowly  but  surely  men 
are  grasping  its  significance.  Man  is  not, 
as  dreamers  have  conceived  him  to  be,  a 
mere  passing  guest  of  the  material  uni- 
verse ;  neither  is  he  its  prisoner.  Matter 
is  not  fleeting ;  neither  is  it  evil.  It  is  the 
lasting  correlative  of  mind.  Even  as  ani- 
mal magnetism  and  nervous  energy  are 
coordinated  with  the  divine  Love  of  the 
Christ,  so  are  all  spiritual  and  physical 
forces  correlatable.  Heaven  and  earth 
may  pass  away,  but  there  will  be  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth 
righteousness.  And  the  new  earth,  —  it  is 
genetically  connected  with  the  old  earth. 
The  new  Jerusalem  comes  down  out  of 
heaven,  but  it  also  ascends  from  beneath. 
Man  is  its  founder,  Christ  is  its  light,  and 
on  its  walls  are  the  names  of  the  twelve 
apostles  and  of  the  Lamb,  who  by  his 
bodily  sacrifice  brought  men  into  this 
higher  unity.      Man  is  the  great   coordi- 


70  THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY. 

nator.  As  he,  through  the  help  of  Christ, 
the  stem  of  righteousness,  gains  power 
rightly  to  coordinate  the  spiritual  with  the 
material  world,  greater  miracles  than  those 
that  Christ  accomplished  will  be  wrought.-^ 
Peter  and  John  standing  at  the  gate  of  the 
Temple,  filled  with  physical  faith,  saying 
to  the  lame  man,  "  Silver  and  gold  have 
we  none,  but  such  as  we  have,  give  we 
thee ;  "  saying,  "  Look  on  us,"  laying  hold 
of  him  by  the  hand,  are  a  true  ideal  of 
spiritual  manhood,  in  which  not  only  the 
immaterial  mind,  but  the  nervous  centres 
themselves,  should  be  surcharged  with  the 
uplifting  energy  of  love ;  and  the  lame 
man,  whose  ankle -bones  immediately  re- 
ceived strength  and  who  leaped  and  walked, 
praising  God,  is  a  fair  picture  of  the  poten- 
tiality that  lies  dormant  in  our  stricken 
humanity,  and  of  what  it  will  do,  when  the 
organic  love  of  God  lays  hold  of  it. 

A  second  result  is,  that  under  Christ's 
gospel  we  have  set  before  us  the  prospect 
of  a  glorified  body.  If  faith  is  physical, 
if  the  body  is  a  supernatural  organ,  then 
its   glorification    follows    as    a   matter   of 

^  John  xiv.  12. 


THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  BODY.  7 1 

course.  There  is  to  a  certain  extent  in 
Christianity  a  sympathy  with  the  Greek 
idea,  —  the  body  is  a  glorious  thing,  is  wor- 
thy of  the  highest  culture.  But  here  Chris- 
tianity comes  to  the  rescue  of  the  Greek 
idea.  The  finest  and  highest  culture  is 
not  that  which  make  the  body  an  end.  It 
is  that  culture  which  makes  it  an  organ 
of  spiritual  force  and  heavenly  coordina- 
tions. Such  a  development  will  sometimes 
carry  the  body  far  away  from  the  Greek 
ideal.  It  will  leave  it  perhaps  mangled 
and  bleeding  upon  the  cross,  though  radi- 
ant with  a  spiritual  glory  that  no  Hermes 
of  Praxiteles  ever  contained.  But  if  it 
be  an  undeveloped  organ  of  the  spiritual 
world,  then  it  is  an  undeveloped  organ  of 
eternity ;  if  it  can  transmit  and  radiate  the 
divine  sacrificial  life  of  Christ,  then  it  can 
share  the  spiritual  evolution  of  that  life; 
it  can  accompany  the  soul  in  its  upward 
march.  Like  the  plant  emerging  from  the 
earth,  it  can  reach  a  new  centre  of  vitality. 
It  can  clothe  itself  with  new  forces,  it  can 
draw  its  vitality  from  above.  We  are  then 
not  to  pass  into  an  eternal  ghosthood. 
Elysium    is    not   the   home   of    gibbering 


72  THE   GOSPEL   OF   THE  BODY. 

shades.  Man's  last  stage  is  that  of  phys- 
ical completion.  He  is  to  rise  again,  to 
take  his  place  in  the  organic  universe  as 
its  dominant  organism,  as  the  image  and 
glory  of  God,  coordinating  all  things  with 
God,  stamping  God's  impress  on  all  around 
him,  finding  the  universe  everywhere  plas- 
tic to  his  energy, —  a  son  of  God  full  of  cre- 
ative fiats,  everywhere  reproducing  God, — 
a  joint  heir  with  Jesus  Christ.  How  greatly 
does  this  view  enhance,  not  merely  the 
value  of  man's  spirit,  but  the  worth  of  his 
organism  !  How  vastly  does  it  emphasize 
the  respect  that  is  to  be  given  to  the 
nervous  system,  particularly  as  being  not 
merely  an  instrument  for  carrying  forward 
the  functions  of  this  life,  but  a  moral  and 
spiritual  instrument  of  the  most  subtle 
kind  and  of  the  vastest  potentiality,  —  an 
instrument  that  is  to  be  developed  with 
the  most  tender  care,  both  as  to  the  moral 
and  as  to  the  physical  laws  of  its  develop- 
ment ! 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    GOSPEL    OF   THE    KINGDOM. 

The  direct  teaching  of  Jesus  concern- 
ing the  supernatural  world  constitutes  the 
largest  part  of  his  discourses.  He  was 
incessantly  occupied  with  it.  With  it  he 
began  and  ended.  It  is  the  one  theme  of 
the  first  three  Gospels,  and  he  committed 
it  to  his  disciples  as  their  supreme  moral 
interest.  He  called  it  the  gospel  or  glad 
tidings  of  the  kingdom.  For  the  spirit- 
ual world  itself  he  employed  the  popular 
word,  "  heaven."  But  it  is  noticeable  that 
the  word  on  his  lips,  like  the  words  "  neigh- 
bor," "  father,"  "  brother,"  took  on  a  larger 
meaning.  He  used  it  at  its  full  valuation. 
In  fact,  it  was  characteristic  of  Jesus  that 
he  thus  expanded  every  important  word 
which  he  employed.  He  not  only  poured 
into  it  a  new  vitality,  but  he  made  the 
word  itself  to  grow  like  a  cedar  of  Leba- 
non into  its  perfected  type  of  stature  and 


74       THE   GOSPEL   OF   THE  KINGDOM. 

of  beauty.  This  word  "  heaven,"  for  in- 
stance, did,  to  be  sure,  signify  the  abode 
of  the  gods,  but  it  also  had  a  more  natu- 
rahstic  meaning.  It  was  not  only  the  ce- 
lestial region  above  the  sky,  but  that  whole 
upper  realm  of  light  and  gladness,  the 
home  of  the  clouds,  the  winds,  the  birds  ; 
what  we  call  the  atmosphere,  that  sweet 
breath  of  the  divine  life  that  God  breathes 
into  man  continually,  and  at  whose  in- 
breathing man  becomes  a  living  soul. 
This  heaven  of  the  atmosphere  is  indeed 
itself  a  majestic  symbol  of  God,  a  won- 
drous type  of  God's  infinity,  all-pervading- 
ness,  aboveness,  and  withinness.  More- 
over, nothing  that  we  possess  so  adequately 
typifies  God's  purity.  Mysterious,  invisi- 
ble, life-giving  is  this  heaven  of  the  atmos- 
phere. "  Its  breath  bloweth  where  it  listeth, 
and  one  cannot  tell  whence  it  cometh  and 
whither  it  goeth,"  said  Jesus.  "  Like  that 
is  any  one  born  of  the  spiritual  world." 
This  heaven  of  the  atmosphere  is  pure, 
yet  it  penetrates  every  loathsome  thing 
and  cleanses  it.  There  is  heaven  far 
above  us,  remote,  inaccessible;  yet  that 
same  heaven  penetrates  to  our  innermost 


THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  KINGDOM.       75 

parts.  In  it  the  whole  world  lives  and 
moves  and  has  its  being ;  it  enters  the 
damp  mould  beneath  our  feet,  it  vitalizes 
the  buried  germs,  it  mounts  up  with  the 
tree  trunk,  and  crowns  the  loftiest  boughs 
of  the  forest  with  its  glory.  It  makes  the 
blood  of  man  to  leap  with  life,  it  dwells 
within  his  brain  cells,  it  flashes  from  his 
eye  and  paints  his  cheek  with  color.  This 
heaven,  not  the  mere  chemical  combina- 
tion of  oxygen  and  nitrogen,  but  the  sun- 
lit atmosphere  pervaded  by  all  its  causa- 
tive energies,  is  forever  coordinating  itself 
with  physical  life,  forever  coming  upon 
earth.  In  the  beauty  of  the  lily,  in  the 
toughness  of  the  oak  fibre,  in  the  bloom 
and  sweetness  of  the  peach,  in  the  tod- 
dling step  of  the  child,  in  the  stride  of 
the  man,  in  the  nerve  of  the  race-horse,  it 
comes.  It  rises  before  us  in  living  forms, 
blessing  us,  feeding  us,  healing  us.  No- 
where else  surely  can  we  find  so  perfect  a 
symbol  of  Him  who  is  both  personality  and 
force,  who  pervades  everything,  yet  tran- 
scends everything,  who  reigns  by  giving 
life,  who  binds  the  universe  together  by  an 
invisible  tie,  and  whose  kingdom  of  life  is 


^(j       THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  KINGDOM. 

forever  coming  while  he  himself  remains 
unchanged. 

To  all  great  natures  this  heaven  of  the 
atmosphere  has  been  a  mighty  word  of 
God,  through  which  God  spoke  on  lonely 
mountain-top  or  desert  sand,  but  especially 
to  Jesus  was  it  a  symbol  of  God,  and  of 
the  eternity  that  He  inhabiteth.  It  was 
not  the  spiritual  world,  but  it  was  its  ma- 
terial symbol  and  expression.  That  world 
itself  was  indeed  to  him  a  high  and  holy 
height,  infinitely  remote  from  sin.  Yet  it 
was  also  close  at  hand.  It  was  potentially 
present  within  all  men.  "  The  kingdom 
of  God  is  within  you."  The  altitude  of 
spiritual  force  is  not  physical  but  moral, 
not  in  the  scale  of  inches  but  of  causation. 
Heaven  is  reached  not  by  ascending  the 
clouds,  but  by  penetrating  deeper  within 
the  heart,  by  extending  man's  conscious- 
ness far  into  the  recesses  of  his  own  being. 
It  was  in  such  a  sense  as  this  doubtless 
that  he  said  of  himself,  the  lowly  born 
peasant,  that  he  had  come  down  out  of 
heaven,  for  in  the  same  connection  he  de- 
clared that  no  man  can  come  down  from 
heaven   save  he   that   hath   ascended  into 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  KINGDOM.       77 

heaven.  In  his  own  mysterious  being  he 
had  climbed  the  steps  of  God-conscious- 
ness, till  he  had  reached  the  Fatherland, 
and  knew  the  mystery  of  his  own  preexist- 
ence.  He  knew  what  was  within  him,  for 
he  had  penetrated  to  it  and  held  commu- 
nion with  it.  He  adds  also  in  the  same 
discourse  this  expression  :  "  The  Son  of 
man  is  in  heaven."  The  rose  that  is  per- 
fectly coordinated  with  the  atmosphere 
becomes  an  organ  of  the  heaven.  Heav- 
en's kingdom  has  come  in  it.  It  is  in 
heaven,  though  it  be  upon  earth.  So  the 
man  that  is  a  perfect  organ  of  the  spiritual 
world  is  forever  in  the  spiritual  heaven, 
though  he  be  upon  earth.  Heaven  may 
take  new  forms  for  him,  it  may  blossom 
out  into  new  glories,  it  may  form  new  co- 
ordinations, it  may  rear  visible  structures, 
it  may  build  a  new  and  fair  earth  out  of  the 
old  elements,  it  may  raise  up  battlements 
of  gold  and  open  gates  of  pearl,  but  its 
inward  quality  will  remain  eternally  the 
same. 

With  this  conception  of  the  word 
"  heaven,"  it  is  plain  to  see  what  Jesus 
meant  by  "the  kingdom  of  heaven  "  or  " the 


7^       THE   GOSPEL    OF   THE  KINGDOM. 

kinordom  of  God,"  which  was  to  come.  He 
meant  the  organic  coordination  of  the  spir- 
itual with  the  material  world.  It  was  a 
gradual  coordination,  an  evolution,  if  you 
please.  It  included,  therefore,  the  develop- 
ment of  a  vast  variety  of  organs  and  func- 
tions. Naturally,  it  was  the  kingdom  of 
righteousness,  for  to  his  mind  righteous- 
ness was  reciprocity  with  God.  The  king- 
dom of  heaven  was  at  hand  when  he 
himself,  the  spiritual  vine,  the  human  stem 
of  spiritual  vitality,  appeared  in  Galilee, 
clothed  with  the  powers  of  the  spiritual 
world.  When  his  disciples,  as  his  spiritu- 
alized organs,  carrying  his  gospel,  entered 
a  village  they  were  to  say  to  men  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  had  come  nigh  to  them, 
for  its  organic  vitalities  were  then  within 
their  grasp.  During  his  lifetime  the  king- 
dom was  still  in  a  germinant  form  ;  the 
seed  was  his  word,  full  of  his  human  per- 
sonality, charged  with  organic  love  for 
humanity ;  and  his  word  or  gospel  in- 
cluded also  the  record  of  his  own  life, 
interpreted  as  to  its  divine  and  human  reci- 
procities by  parables  and  miracles,  state- 
ments of  principles  and  their  application, 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  KINGDOM.       79 

and  much  direct  outshining  of  the  Father- 
hood. But  after  his  crucifixion,  then  in  a 
peculiar  sense  the  kingdom  of  God  came. 
It  came  as  the  kino;dom  of  nature  comes 
when  the  corn  of  wheat  has  fallen  into  the 
Q^round  and  died.  It  came  in  his  own 
new,  organic  manhood ;  his  own  resurrec- 
tion body,  capable  of  wider  physical  coor- 
dinations ;  it  came  with  power,  as  he  pre- 
dicted it,  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  in  the 
form  of  a  new  religion,  a  new  body  of  men 
with  new  powers,  new  vision,  a  new  broth- 
erhood. It  has  been  coming  through  the 
ages  in  an  endless  variety  of  coordinations 
and  spiritual  embodiments.  For  wherever 
the  spirit  of  Christ  produces  a  new  organ 
or  unity,  there  the  kingdom  comes.  But 
eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  to 
conceive  how  the  kingdom  of  heaven  shall 
come,  with  what  mighty  embodiments  of 
the  living  God;  with  what  wide-ranging 
physical  coordinations,  what  literal  ascent 
of  man  into  the  heavens  ;  what  new  man- 
sions of  the  soul ;  what  cosmopolitan 
powers  over  the  stellar  universe ;  what 
god-like  majesty  of  the  human  form  itself ; 


8o       THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  KINGDOM. 

what  city  of  God,  having  her  light  like 
unto  that  of  the  sun.  For  if  we  are  to 
take  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  eternally  the  same  in  its  spir- 
itual force,  yet  stretches  throughout  the 
universe  and  is  everywhere,  even  as  here, 
a  coordination  with  matter ;  yea,  it  already 
has  in  some  distant  parts  of  the  universe 
attained  its  consummation  ;  yea,  already  it 
holds  for  us,  afar  off  among  its  organic  de- 
velopments, a  literal  paradise  and  a  throne 
of  God,  to  which  he  has  ascended  in  our 
behalf,  and  where  he  is  preparing  a  place 
for  us. 

Now  in  view  of  this,  it  becomes  possible 
to  reconcile  those  apparently  contradic- 
tory statements  of  Jesus,  in  which  he 
speaks  of  the  spiritual  realm  sometimes  as 
near,  sometimes  as  remote,  and  often  as 
coming  while  still  it  lingers.  Sometimes 
in  his  parables  he  represents  himself  as 
thousfh  after  his  death  he  were  to  become 
a  kind  of  absentee  landlord.  Yet  in  other 
passages  he  speaks  of  the  coming  of  the 
Son  of  Man,  not  of  his  final  coming, 
but  of  many  intermediate  comings.  As 
though,  in  fact,  his  coming  were  to  be  a 


THE   GOSPEL   OF  THE  KINGDOM.      8 1 

constant  feature  of  history.  Again,  he 
speaks  in  other  places  of  being  with  his 
followers,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world. 
So,  too,  in  regard  to  God :  he  sometimes 
represents  God  as  though  he  were  a  great 
way  off,  even  from  his  own  people  the 
Jews;  like  a  king  who  has  built  a  tower  in 
some  border  province,  and  let  it  out  to 
husbandmen,  he  holds  communication  at 
first  only  through  servants,  then  as  a  last 
resort  through  his  son,  but  he  himself 
remains  afar.  Not  only  through  the  Old 
Testament,  but  through  the  New,  this 
chill  effect  of  distance  is  at  times  thrown 
about  our  relation  to  God.  "  He  is  in  hea- 
ven, thou  upon  earth."  Yet,  as  has  been 
seen,  the  main  current  of  Christ's  teaching 
with  regard  to  God  is  in  the  direction  of 
God's  nearness  and  indwelling.  This,  in 
fact,  is  the  more  vital  side  of  the  truth ;  it 
is  the  side  on  which  all  depends,  and 
which,  under  the  progress  of  the  gospel, 
gradually  absorbs  the  other.  We  see  the 
harmony  between  these  two  sides,  how- 
ever, when  we  take  in  Christ's  position  as 
to  the  unity  of  the  two  worlds :  when  we 
see,  moreover,  that   man   is  organic,  and 


S2       THE   GOSPEL    OF   THE   KINGDOM. 

that  God  deals  with  him  as  organic,  and 
as  being  in  part  responsible  for  the  condi- 
tion of  his  organism.  God  is  ever  with 
man,  as  the  atmosphere  is  ever  with  him, 
but  man  can  only  hold  reciprocity  with 
God,  as  with  the  atmosphere,  through  cer- 
tain organs.  The  development  of  those 
spiritual  organs  is  therefore  not  only 
man's  highest  privilege,  but  it  is  his  most 
imperative  duty.  He  is  solemnly  respon- 
sible for  their  atrophy.  "  Ye  are  God's 
husbandry."  If  the  spiritual  organs  are 
not  properly  developed,  then  to  all  practi- 
cal purposes  God  is  indeed  at  a  distance, 
his  relationship  becomes  hard  and  me- 
chanical, his  realm  a  foreign  realm,  his 
commands  antagonistic  and  alien. 

The  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy.  More- 
over, his  earth  has  been  disunited  from 
heaven  by  his  own  will.  God  may  still 
claim  such  a  man  as  his  own,  for  there  is 
a  potential  reciprocity.  He  may  seek  to 
bridge  the  distance,  he  may  visit  the  man 
as  the  sunlit  heaven  visits  the  earth,  not 
only  by  its  direct  shining,  and  by  the 
pure  breath  of  its  winds,  but  by  its  or- 
ganic forms  of  fruit  and  flower  and  tree. 


THE   GOSPEL    OF  THE  KINGDOM.       83 

So  God  may  seek  to  reach  man,  both  per- 
vasively and  by  organic  contact.  It  is 
such  seeking  which  Jesus  interprets  to  us 
in  the  parable  of  the  shepherd  seeking  the 
lost  sheep.  The  coming  of  God,  the  pre- 
sence of  God,  and  the  kingdom  of  God 
refer  in  every  case  to  God's  manifestation 
of  himself  in  an  organic  world,  through 
organic  forms;  and  the  distance  of  God 
from  the  world,  wherever  it  occurs,  is 
always  due  to  one  of  two  causes,  —  either 
the  incomplete  development  of  the  or- 
ganic form,  or  man's  failure  to  cultivate  the 
organ  for  its  reception.  We  can  under- 
stand, too,  from  this  view-point  the  moral 
earnestness  of  Christ  in  pointing  out  the 
relation  of  the  spiritual  realm  to  man's 
moral  nature.  "  Repent,  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  at  hand."  It  could  only 
come  through  coordination  with  moral 
purpose.  In  the  sermon  on  the  mount  he 
shows  how  it  is  coordinated  with  the 
spiritual  organism,  and  how  the  spiritual 
organism  is  really  the  development  of  the 
moral  organism  into  larger  function  and 
consciousness.  He  shows,  too,  distinctly, 
the   fact   that  right  and  wrong  are  ques- 


84      THE  GOSPEL   OF  THE  KINGDOM. 

tions,  not  of  mere  conduct  alone,  but  of 
organic  coordination  with  two  kingdoms. 
There  is,  on  the  one  hand,  the  true,  nor- 
mal, constitutional  unity  of  man  with  God. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  man's  debas- 
ing unity  with  a  de-spiritualized  earth,  a 
kingdom  of  evil.  The  organisms  that 
connect  us  with  that  kingdom  must  be 
cut  off,  plucked  forth,  cast  from  us,  or  we 
shall  be  brought  to  its  worm  and  fire,  for 
it  is  essentially  a  kingdom  of  death. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    KNOWLEDGE    OF   GOD. 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  this  idea  of  Jesus 
concerning  the  kingdom  of  God  lay  at  the 
very  root  of  all  that  he  said  about  the 
knowledge  of  God.  We  talk  about  God 
drawing  near  to  men.  Too  often  when 
we  use  that  language  it  signifies  to  us  a 
wholly  invisible  and  intangible  fact,  so 
subtle  as  only  to  be  appreciated,  if  at  all, 
by  the  most  delicate  and  sensitive  nature. 
On  the  contrary,  to  the  mind  of  Jesus  the 
approach  of  God  was  identical  with  the 
coming  of  his  kingdom  with  the  En- 
trance of  the  Word.  It  was  the  develop- 
ment of  those  organic  forms  by  which  the 
spiritual  and  material  world  were  coordi- 
nated; and  the  presence  of  God  was  an 
objective  organic  manifestation  of  him. 
Undoubtedly,  in  the  grander  and  more 
eternal  sense  of  the  word  the  presence  of 
God  does  signify  his  purely  spiritual  ex- 


S6  THE  KxYOWLEDGE    OF  GOD. 

istence  and  self-disclosure.  Such  may  be 
the  presence  of  God  to  a  being  capable  of 
apprehending  it.  But  the  foundation  idea 
of  such  terms  as  "  nearness  "  and  "  presence  " 
is  that  of  relationship  to  our  own  faculties. 
A  thing  is  present  when  it  comes  within 
the  range  of  our  faculties.  It  draws  near 
in  proportion  as  it  subjects  itself  to  their 
scrutiny.  Now,  as  man  is  an  organic  be- 
ing whose  field  of  knowledge  is  the  mate- 
rial world,  and  whose  faculties  exert  their 
activity  through  the  five  senses,  the  pres- 
ence of  a  being,  so  far  as  man  is  concerned, 
signifies  the  presentation  of  him  within 
the  field  of  material  objects  and  within  the 
range  of  the  five  senses.  And  this  was 
what  the  divine  presence  signified  to  Jesus 
as  the  helper  of  men.  This,  too,  was  what 
it  signified  to  Moses.  When  Moses  be- 
sought God  for  his  presence  he  was  not 
asking  for  a  purely  spiritual  propinquity ; 
this  he  already  possessed  for  himself.  He 
meant  a  phenomenal  manifestation  such 
as  would  support  the  heart  and  flesh  of 
God's  people.  And  when  God  declared 
that  his  presence  would  be  perilous  to  the 
Israelites,  He  meant  that  any  honest  em- 


THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.  8/ 

bodiment  of  his  personality  in  the  field  of 
natural  phenomena  would  take  the  shape 
of  devouring  fire  toward  such  a  people  as 
the  Israelites  had  shown  themselves  to  be. 
For  such  an  embodiment  as  the  crucified 
Jesus  was,  in  that  stage  of  development, 
impracticable  and  incomprehensible. 

We  have  reached  then  this  point.  To 
the  mind  of  Jesus  the  presence  of  God  sig- 
nified an  objective  organic  embodiment  of 
his  person  and  character.  God  drew  near 
to  men  in  proportion  as  his  character  was 
embodied,  and  in  proportion  as  the  em- 
bodiment was  within  the  range  of  man's 
perceptive  faculties.  This  shuts  out  of 
the  question  altogether  a  great  deal  of  the 
thought  associated  in  men's  minds  with 
the  knowledge  of  God.  The  knowledge 
of  God  commonly  conceived  of  by  men  is 
of  two  sorts.  First  there  is  a  vague,  subtle, 
emotional  experience  peculiar  to  highly 
wrought  organizations  that  is  fairly  de- 
scribed in  its  various  forms  by  the  term 
"  transcendentalism."  It  is  wholly  excep- 
tional and  sporadic.  It  could  never  be- 
come a  popular  possession,  and  it  is 
questionable  how  far  it  can  ever  be  dis- 


88  THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD. 

tinguished  from  mere  subjectivity.  At  all 
events  it  has  thus  far  deservedly  failed  to 
commend  itself  to  the  practical  sense  of 
mankind.  Doubtless  much  of  what  has 
been  thought  to  be  the  "  new  birth,"  or 
"  the  work  of  the  Spirit,"  deserves  to  be 
classed  under  this  head  of  transcendental 
knowledge.  How  much  of  a  reality  it  con- 
tains may  be  questioned.  But  taken  by  it- 
self it  certainly  presents  no  practical  field 
of  knowledge  to  miankind. 

On  the  other  hand,  to  philosophers  gen- 
erally the  term  "knowledge  of  God "  sig- 
nifies the  intellectual  comprehension  of 
Him,  or  the  logical  proof  of  Him,  which 
comes  to  pretty  much  the  same  thing. 
Takino:  this  notion  of  the  word  "  know- 
ledge,"  some  of  our  philosophic  thinkers 
have  declared  that  God  was  unknowable. 
And  in  a  sense  this  is  true.  To  know 
God  intellectually  would  be  to  know  his 
mode  of  existence,  and  that  a  finite  be- 
ing can  understand  an  Infinite  mode  of 
existence  seems  indeed  absurd.  It  is  a 
case  of  the  less  containing  the  greater.  It 
is  true  that  we  can  form  for  ourselves  a 
certain  notion  of  the   Infinite.     But  that 


THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.  89 

notion  is  rather  imaginative  than  intellec- 
tual. It  is  gained,  for  instance,  in  one  way 
by  presenting  to  our  imagination  an  ever- 
widening  area  of  space.  This  affords  us, 
however,  only  a  symbol  of  Infinity,  and  as 
a  matter  of  fact  we  have  no  clear  notion 
of  space  itself.  Or,  if  we  ascribe  a  more 
limited  meaning  to  the  term  and  under- 
stand the  intellectual  knowledge  of  God  to 
mean  the  logical  knowledge  of  Him,  or  the 
proof  of  his  existence,  we  are  confronted 
with  a  similar  difficulty.  Since  it  is  im- 
possible for  us  to  state  what  God  is,  we 
are  unable  to  construct  the  proposition  we 
are  called  upon  to  prove. 

To  be  sure,  at  first  sight  it  seems  as 
though  the  moral  problem  would  be  suffi- 
ciently met  by  proving  the  existence  of  an 
all-wise  and  all-loving  Creator.  But  the 
moment  we  attempt  the  task  we  are  con- 
fronted with  endless  argumentation  as  well 
as  mystification,  growing  out  of  the  fact 
that  we  have  not  settled  definitely  what 
creation  is,  nor  what  personality  is.  Nei- 
ther have  we  settled  the  question  what  an 
absolute  wisdom  and  love  are  in  their  es- 
sence or  manifestation  ;  while,  on  the  other 


90  THE   KNOWLEDGE    OF  GOD. 

hand,  we  are  arrested  by  the  fact  that  our 
knowledge  of  the  phenomena  of  this  world, 
and  particularly  their  origin  and  outcome, 
is  far  too  limited  to  furnish   us  with  sat- 
isfactory  proof   of   such    qualities.     Even 
when  we  give  up  the  idea  of  an  infinite 
wisdom    and    goodness,    and    attempt    to 
prove   simply  the   proposition   of   a  good 
and  wise  Creator,  we  disagree  at  once  over 
two  questions  :    First,  what  are  goodness 
and  wisdom  ;  and,  secondly,  what  would  be 
their    manifestation    in    the    development 
and  training  of  such  beings  as  ourselves. 
Without  an  agreement  on  these  questions 
we  have  no  starting-point  from  which  to  rea- 
son.    Indeed,  as  we  turn  to  ourselves,  we 
encounter  the  most  radical  difficulty  of  all. 
Here,  in  fact,  is  where   the  shoe  pinches, 
for  we  speedily  discover  that  we  have  no 
adequate    intellectual    knowledge    of   our- 
selves.    It  may  truly  be  said  that  we  have 
not  experienced  our  own   selves.     We  do 
not  know  our  own  mode  of  existence.    The 
distinction   between    mind   and   matter,  if 
there  be  such  a  distinction,  the  genesis  of 
moral  obli2:ation,  the   value  of  Reason  in 
its  present  stage,  —  all  these  involve  prob- 


THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.  9 1 

lems  whose  solution  is  beyond  our  reach. 
Really,  so  far  as  our  intellectual  knowledge 
is  concerned,  it  may  be  said  that  while  it 
is  very  essential  to  us,  and  practical  when 
combined  with  other  kinds  of  knowledge, 
it  is  nevertheless  wholly  relative  and  super- 
ficial. It  does  not  penetrate  anywhere  to 
the  mystery  of  existence.  We  do  not  even 
know  the  mode  of  existence  of  the  mate- 
rial world.  The  molecules  of  matter  are 
to  us  a  mere  hypothesis.  Nor  have  we 
any  absolutely  intellectual  proof  of  the  ex- 
istence of  matter.  We  accept  it  on  the 
testimony  of  feeling  rather  than  of  reason. 
If,  then,  the  limitation  of  our  intellectual 
faculties  is  such  that  we  cannot  furnish 
any  strictly  logical  proof  of  the  very  arm- 
chair in  which  we  sit,  if  we  cannot  know 
its  mode  of  existence  nor  its  essence,  then 
how  can  we  expect  to  possess  intellectual 
knowledge  of  God  ? 

Religious  people  have  often  been 
alarmed  by  the  assertion  that  God  was 
unknowable.  But  if  we  take  it  in  the 
only  sense  in  which  it  is  true,  the  purely 
intellectual  sense,  it  applies  also  to  every- 
thing else.     You    are  unknowable,  so  am 


92  THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD. 

I,  SO  is  this  table  on  which  I  write,  so  is 
the  violet  whose  fragrance  you  inhale,  so 
is  the  water  that  you  drink,  and  the  bread 
that  you  eat,  and  the  child  that  you  hold 
in  your  arms.  In  the  purely  intellectual 
sense,  each  one  of  these  is  unknowable. 
You  cannot  form  a  complete  logical  proof 
for  the  existence  of  any  of  them.  You 
can  prove  it,  doubtless,  to  satisfy  yourself, 
or,  as  you  would  express  it,  "  to  satisfy  any 
reasonable  man,"  but  you  cannot  prove  it 
to  the  absolute  satisfaction  of  logic  itself, 
nor  to  the  mind  of  a  man  who  insists  on 
being  bound  by  logic  alone.  To  such  a 
man  the  external  universe  will  still  remain 
unproved.  And  it  is  quite  possible  for 
any  human  being  to  bring  about  in  him- 
self such  an  abnormal  preponderance  of 
the  logical  faculty,  and  such  a  shrinkage 
of  the  perceptive  power,  that  he  shall  be 
capable  of  doubting  the  existence  of  the 
external  world.  It  remains,  therefore,  that, 
in  the  intellectual  sense,  not  only  is  God 
unknowable,  but  everything  else  is  un- 
knowable. And  the  only  reason  why  we 
attach  peculiar  importance  to  God's  un- 
knowability  is  because  we  are  too  much 


THE  KNOWLEDGE    OF  GOD.  93 

accustomed  to  think  of  him  as  knowable 
only  in  the  intellectual    way,   particularly 
in  the  way  of  proof.     As  a  matter  of  fact, 
however,  it  is  not  by  the  pure  reason  that 
we    o-ain    what   we    call    a    realization    of 
things.     On  the  contrary,  the  very  attempt 
to  rationalize  knowledge  is  apt  to  minimize 
realization.     Indeed,  as  we  apply  the  purely 
logical  method    only  to    objects    that    are 
not  within  the  range  of  a  more  direct  kind 
of  knowledge,  the  very  attempt  to  prove 
them  makes  them  seem  more  unreal,  not 
only  because  it  classifies  them  with  things 
that  cannot  be  seen,  and  therefore  makes 
them  hang  upon  proof  rather  than  sight, 
but  also  because  the  concentration  of  one's 
whole    attention  on   the    process  of    logic 
shrinks    up   the    perceptive  powers  them- 
selves, and  throws  their  field  into  shadow. 
Now,  a  man   may  have  sufficient   logical 
proof  of  a  friend's  existence  to  satisfy  his 
reason,  but  if,  through  failure  of  eyesight, 
he  cannot  see  his  friend's  face,  he  is  truly 
in  darkness,  for    if    darkness    means  any- 
thing, it  means  the  obscuration  of  the  per- 
ceptive powers;  they  alone  give   us   that 
o-ladsome    consciousness    which    we    call 


94  THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD. 

vision.  They,  too,  give  us  realization,  nor 
does  any  amount  of  proof  make  up  for 
their  absence. 

It  is  plain,  therefore,  what  Jesus  meant 
when  he  spoke  of  the  Pharisees,  those  cul- 
tivated religious  men  of  his  day,  as  being  in 
darkness ;  he  did  not  mean  that  they  were 
ignorant  of  scriptural  facts,  nor  entirely 
destitute  of  theistic  proof;  he  meant  that 
their  perceptive  faculties  were  so  obscured 
that  they  could  not  realize  God's  personal 
presence ;  and  when  he  said  that  they  knew 
not  the  Father,  his  language  corroborated 
this  position,  for  it  implied  that  the  know- 
ledge which  they  lacked  was  that  sort  of 
personal  acquaintanceship  which  is  based 
upon  perception,  just  as  the  term  "  Fa- 
ther," itself,  implies  a  closeness  of  relation- 
ship with  human  faculties.  Now,  if,  as 
Jesus  taught,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  an 
earthly  embodying  of  God's  presence 
within  the  range  of  our  perceptive  facul- 
ties ;  if,  in  short,  God  is  knowable  through 
our  perceptive  powers,  then,  of  course,  that 
is  the  only  practical  and  reasonable  way  to 
attempt  the  knowledge  of  Him ;  and  any 
other  kind  of  knowledge  must  be,  as  com- 


THE  KNOWLEDGE  OF  GOD.  95 

pared  to  this,  mere  blindness  and  dark- 
ness. The  utmost  that  we  can  obtain  by 
the  logical  method  is,  as  has  been  seen,  a 
strong  probability,  and  that  will  always 
vary  with  the  individual  mind.  If,  there- 
fore, such  a  thing  be  possible  as  the 
actual  perception  of  God,  carrying  with  it 
that  certitude  and  joyful  realization  that 
characterizes  perception  generally,  it  is 
indeed  glad  tidings,  as  Jesus  called  it,  glad 
tidings  of  the  kingdom,  and  is  of  the 
highest  import  to  man's  religious  nature. 
More  than  that ;  in  basing  itself  upon  spir- 
itual perception,  Christianity  radically  dif- 
ferentiates itself  from  all  other  religions. 
But  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  was 
the  position  of  Jesus.  At  the  very  outset, 
in  describing  the  blessedness  of  the  king- 
dom, he  declared,  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in 
heart,  for  they  shall  see  God,"  a  perfectly 
logical  sequence  from  his  description  of 
the  kingdom  itself.  Furthermore,  although 
he  came,  as  he  declared,  above  all  things 
else  to  give  men  the  knowledge  of  God, 
yet  he  never  presented  any  proof  of  the 
divine  existence  ;  indeed  he  surprised  his 
followers  by  the  minor  importance  that  he 


96  THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD. 

attached  to  proof,  even  concerning  his  own 
authority.  The  condition  of  that  kind  of 
knowledge  which  he  came  to  give,  he 
plainly  stated.  It  was  light,  not  proof. 
Light  is  the  condition  of  perception,  and 
it  was  this  which  he  considered  himself  as 
in  a  peculiar  sense  emxpowered  to  give. 
Moreover,  the  fact  that  he  did  give  it  con- 
stituted his  authority.  According  to  the 
fourth  Gospel,  he  declared,  "  I  am  the  light 
of  the  world."  Light  is  its  own  authority. 
In  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  he  says  prac- 
tically the  same  thing,  for  he  tells  his  dis- 
ciples that  they,  illuminated  by  his  teach- 
ing, are  the  light  of  the  world.  And  his 
procedure  entirely  agrees  with  these  two 
statements.  Throughout  the  first  three 
Gospels  he  adopts  a  definite  method  of 
imparting  spiritual  knowledge.  Whether 
it  be  the  immanence  of  the  Father,  or  his 
own  sonship  to  God,  he  does  not  at  first 
assert  it,  nor  ever  prove  it,  but  he  endeavors 
to  train,  to  elevate,  and  to  purify  the  percep- 
tions of  his  disciples.  That  is  the  object 
of  discipleship.  Many  of  the  things  that 
he  tauofht  have  been  said  more  or  less 
perfectly    by    others,   nor  would    they    all 


THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.  97 

together  have  taken  anything  like  three 
years  to  utter  them.  It  was  to  the  train- 
ing of  the  perceptive  powers  of  his  disci- 
ples, to  the  impartation  of  light,  to  the 
radiation  of  a  certain  luminous  personal 
atmosphere,  so  that  things  before  darkly 
held  now  stood  forth  like  midday  realities, 
—  it  was  to  these  things  rather  than  to 
logical  proof  that  Jesus  gave  himself  dur- 
ing those  three  years.  The  process  of 
unfolding  intuition,  the  uniting  and  focal- 
izing of  all  .the  perceptive  energies  upon 
spiritual  manifestations,  —  this  it  was  that 
he  watched  with  the  keenest  solicitude,  as 
when  he  took  them  apart  at  Philippi  and 
said,  "  Whom  do  ye  say  that  I  am  }  "  His 
whole  heart  waited  for  the  culmination  of 
that  perceptive  development.  It  harmo- 
nizes with  the  statement  in  the  fourth 
Gospel,  "  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen 
the  Father,  and  how  sayest  thou  then, 
show  us  the  Father."  What  possible 
other  way  is  there  of  showing  or  demon- 
strating God's  existence,  He  being  the 
Father,  but  that  He  should  be  seen  like 
any  other  father,  through  an  embodiment 
of  Him  .f*     As  to  the  disciples  themselves, 


98  THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD. 

when  the  process  was  completed,  the 
notion  they  themselves  give  us  of  it  is 
that  it  was  a  kind  of  joyful  perception.  It 
was  "  walking  in  the  Light."  It  was  see- 
ing God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  It 
was  certitude,  realization ;  not  proof,  but 
sight.  Their  whole  attitude  and  conduct 
were  those  of  men  who  are  actuated  by  the 
warm  reality  of  vision,  rather  than  by  the 
cold  and  purely  intellectual  effect  of 
proof. 

This  brings  us  squarely  to  the  question, 
What  is  perception,  and  what  are  the  laws 
on  which  it  is  conditioned.^  for  just  here  it 
is  that  the  whole  issue  lies  between  Jesus 
and  the  skeptic  or  agnostic.  The  essen- 
tial position  has  not  altered  one  particle. 
As  regards  the  position  of  Jesus,  the  skep- 
tic and  agnostic  of  to-day  occupy  pre- 
cisely the  ground  held  by  the  Pharisees 
in  Christ's  time.  The  situation  could  not 
be  better  sketched  than  it  is  in  the  third 
chapter  of  John.  Nicodemus  was  what 
one  might  call  an  honest  agnostic ;  he 
was  better  than  his  party,  though  unfor- 
tunately timid;  he  came  to  Jesus  by  night, 
and  put  the  case  as  honestly  as  he  knew 


THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.  99 

how.  Rabbi,  he  said,  we  understand  your 
position ;  we  know  you  are  a  teacher  come 
from  God  ;  your  miracles  indicate  that,  but 
you  go  farther  than  they  warrant  you  in 
going ;  you  preach  the  kingdom  of  the 
Messiah ;  your  disciples  baptize  in  your 
name.  That  implies  that  you  are  the 
Messiah ;  but  for  this  latter  fact  you  give 
us  no  adequate  evidence ;  your  miracles 
are  no  greater  than  those  of  the  other 
prophets, — not  so  great  as  some  of  them. 
We  are  therefore  left  without  proof.  We 
understand  the  limits  of  reliofious  know- 
ledge.  You  ought  to  understand  them. 
Without  proof  our  responsibility  ends. 
That  was  the  agnostic  position  squarely 
put.  Agnosticism  seems  innocent,  as  when 
the  Pharisees  replied  to  Christ's  question 
whether  John's  baptism  was  from  heaven 
or  of  men,  "We  cannot  tell."  Such  an 
attitude  creates  a  false  impression  of  help- 
lessness ;  it  appears  to  throw  the  respon- 
sibility on  God  or  his  prophet,  but  in 
reality  this  position  is  always  the  arrogant 
"  we  know  "  of  the  Pharisaic  school. 

Instead  of  being  a  confession  of  weak- 
ness, it  is  the  assumption  of  intellectual 


lOO  THE  KNOWLEDGE    OF  GOD. 

authority;  it  defines  the  nature  and  limi- 
tations of  evidence,  and  asserts  the  entire 
adequacy  of  the  reason  and  external  per- 
ception as  criteria  of  knowledge ;  nay, 
more,  it  dares  to  estimate  what  is  beyond 
its  experience,  to  take  up  the  sceptre  of 
the  spiritual  universe,  to  tell  men  the  limit 
of  their  moral  obligation  and  assign  to  jesus 
his  place.  Jesus  understood  the  situation 
perfectly.  His  reply  was  in  effect,  Not 
proof,  Nicodemus,  but  sight  is  what  you 
want,  in  order  to  judge  of  a  Messiah;  and 
he  then  proceeds  to  state  the  law  for  the 
evolution  of  spiritual  perception,  which 
law  he  implies  the  Pharisees  had  neglected 
when  they  refused  to  come  to  the  baptism 
of  John.  "  Except  a  man  be  born  again 
he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God."  The 
explanation  of  this  passage  I  shall  take  up 
in  its  proper  place,  and  shall  then  show 
that  the  new  birth  is  simply  the  organic 
culmination  under  Christ  of  an  embryonic 
spiritual  process,  an  earthly  fact  that  had 
been  developing  from  the  first  under  the 
Hebrew  prophets,  and  particularly  under 
the  baptism  of  John.  Multitudes  of  the 
Jewish  people  had  flocked  to  him  and  had 


THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD.  1 01 

submitted  themselves  to  his  purifying  min- 
istry. Thus  their  spiritual  vision  was  both 
cleansed  and  broadened,  and  from  their 
ranks  came  the  men  who  first  hailed  Jesus 
as  the  Messiah.  The  Pharisees,  however, 
would  not  thus  discredit  their  culture, 
which  was  the  ground  of  their  authority ; 
they  stood  aloof  in  a  critical  attitude, 
resenting  the  idea  that  unlearned  men 
could  of  themselves  furnish  any  criterion 
of  knowledge. 

The  reply  of  Jesus,  therefore,  was  a  re- 
buke to  their  attitude,  and  an  assertion  of 
the  ultimate  source  of  authority  that  exists 
in  the  perceptive  heart  of  humanity  when 
it  is  personally  coordinated  with  God. 
And  this  brings  us  to  the  universality  of 
perceptive  knowledge  ;  it  is  of  the  heart, 
and  therefore  distinctively  human ;  other 
forms  of  knowledge  belong  to  peculiar 
classes,  but  perception  belongs  to  the  race ; 
by  it  the  child  knows  his  father,  though  he 
cannot  comprehend  one  thing  concerning 
that  father's  existence,  nor  prove  that  exist- 
ence to  his  own  logical  faculty.  Yet  he 
knows  his  father,  for  he  feels  him,  or,  in 
other  words,  feels  his  personality  through 


I02  THE   KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD. 

the  senses.  Life  feels  life,  wherever  that 
life  is  embodied  before  it.-  Thus,  though 
we  do  not  know  what  personality  is  and 
cannot  agree  about  its  definition,  yet  we 
all  know  persons,  for  we  all  feel  them,  and 
there  can  be  no  greater  reality  to  us  than 
what  we  thus  feel.  If  a  man's  best  friend 
is  not  real  to  him,  nothing  is.  It  is  this 
kind  of  direct  knowledge,  the  kind  most 
certifying  and  most  satisfying,  that  we  can 
have  concerning  God.  By  it  the  feeblest 
may  know  the  greatest,  the  finite  may 
know  the  Infinite,  the  earthly  child  may 
know  his  Heavenly  Father. 

This  was  certainly  the  position  of  Jesus. 
It  was  not  a  theory  merely,  but  a  fact  of 
his  consciousness  to  which  he  bore  testi- 
mony, not  by  words  alone,  but  by  a  life  of 
suffering,  and  by  a  death  on  the  cross. 
He  rejoiced,  however,  in  this  testimony, 
for  his  inner  consciousness  told  him  that 
God  always  felt  men,  their  joys,  sorrows, 
and  needs,  and  that  men  had  in  them  a 
potentiality  for  feeling  God.  This  was 
to  his  mind  the  foundation  of  all  right- 
eousness; to  develop  it  into  perception  was 
therefore,   naturally  enough,   the    road   to 


THE  KNOWLEDGE    OF  GOD.  103 

the  knowledge  of  God,  and  this  personal 
knowledge  was  of  vital  significance  mor- 
ally, for  it  was  itself  the  root  of  all  holy 
love.  While  therefore  Jesus  undoubtedly 
sought  to  teach  men  and  to  set  an  ex- 
ample of  righteousness,  that  side  of  his 
mission  appeared  to  him  relatively  insig- 
nificant. It  could  not  secure  our  moral 
salvation.  Neither  ethical  culture,  nor  the 
intellectual  knowledge  of  God,  can  bring 
men  into  living  reciprocity  with  Him  ;  the 
kingdom  of  righteousness  is  a  kingdom 
of  God-consciousness.  The  Christ  must 
therefore  of  necessity  be  the  supreme  per- 
sonal revelation  of  God  to  man.  But  a 
being,  capable  of  making  such  a  revela- 
tion, must  be  in  himself  an  unfathomable 
mystery.  Child-like  souls  may  through 
him  find  the  Father,  but  no  human  reason 
can  comprehend  him ;  a  divine  manifesta- 
tion must  be  above  the  reach  of  human 
reason.  Thus  he  comforted  himself  when 
great  men  and  great  cities  rejected  him. 
Another  man  would  have  been  cast  down 
at  his  own  apparent  insignificance ;  but 
Jesus  rejoiced  at  a  fact  which  overthrew 
the   tyranny  of  intellect  and  exalted  the 


104  THE  KNOWLEDGE   OF  GOD. 

simple  heart  of  humanity  to  its  rightful 
heritage  in  the  knowledge  of  the  Father. 
"  I  thank  thee,  O  Father,  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  that  thou  didst  hide  these  things 
in  this  humble  guise  of  my  Galilean  man- 
hood from  the  wise  and  intellectual,  and 
hast  revealed  them  unto  babes."  No  one 
knoweth  the  Son  save  the  Father,  neither 
doth  any  one  know  the  Father,  save  the 
Son  and  he  to  whom  the  Son  willeth  to 
reveal  Him.  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  wdll  give 
you  rest."  So  at  the  historic  point  called 
Calvary  the  mystery  of  the  universe  em- 
bodies itself;  the  life  of  the  world  draws 
near ;  there  may  life  feel  life. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE    LAWS    OF    PERCEPTION. 

Perceptive  knowledge  being  the  foun- 
dation of  Christ's  righteousness,  it  was  rea- 
sonable that  he  should  lay  great  stress 
upon  our  use  of  the  perceptive  faculties. 
Like  all  the  organs,  he  regarded  them  as 
governed  by  certain  laws,  and  there  was 
nothing  in  regard  to  which  he  uttered 
more  solemn  or  more  frequent  warnings 
than  concerning  this  very  matter  of  obedi- 
ence to  the  laws  of  perception.  These 
laws,  as  stated  by  him,  are  three  in  num- 
ber :  they  are  Simplicity,  Purity,  and  Spir- 
ituality. 

In  saying  that  Jesus  laid  down  three 
great  laws  of  perception,  I  do  not  of  course 
mean  that  he  did  it  in  precise  terms,  for  he 
never  used  scientific  language,  or  taught 
after  the  scientific  manner;  but  the  things 
he  insisted  upon  in  his  popular  teaching 
as  the  conditions  of  perception  are  reduci- 


I06         THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION. 

ble  to  what  we  call  laws,  and  of  those  laws 
there  are  the  three  which  I  have  just  stated. 
First,  let  us  take  the  law  of  Simplicity. 
"If  thine  eye  be  single,"  said  Jesus,  "thy 
whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light."  The 
word  translated  "single"  is,  in  the  origi- 
nal, "  simple ; "  but,  whichever  we  use,  it 
comes  to  the  same  thing;  for,  if  it  is  to 
make  any  sense  at  all,  it  must  be  taken  as 
referring  to  the  focus  of  the  eye.  Jesus  was 
a  close  observer  of  nature ;  he  never  meant 
to  say  that  the  less  complex  an  eye  was, 
the  better  it  was ;  that  a  man  with  a  single 
eye  could  see  better  than  a  man  wdth  two 
eyes,  and  a  man  with  only  a  pupil  could 
see  better  than  one  with  the  eyeball  and 
retina  besides,  or  that  in  the  higher  process 
of  perception  a  man  with  nothing  but  a 
conscience  could  detect  moral  truth  better 
than  a  man  who  had  also  reason,  affection, 
and  imagination.  If,  however,  we  take  his 
language  as  applying  to  the  focus  of  the 
eye,  it  becomes  clear,  and  does  indeed 
enunciate  for  us,  in  a  singularly  vivid  and 
concise  way,  the  first  condition  of  all  per- 
ception, for  it  is  the  focusing  of  the  eye 
that  makes  it  a  perceptive  organ,  and  of 


THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION.  lOJ 

course  everything  depends  on  the  focus 
being  single  or  simple.  But  what  is  the 
focusing  of  an  eye  ?  Obviously  it  is  the 
perfect  coordination  as  well  as  subordina- 
tion of  all  the  parts  wath  reference  to  a 
single  centre.  Thus  in  each  eye  of  a  man 
all  the  parts  are  so  perfectly  coordinated 
about  the  optic  axis,  and  so  perfectly  sub- 
ordinated in  structure  and  density  to  the 
business  in  hand,  that  a  single  image  is 
made  in  front  of  the  retina.  Likewise  the 
nerves  of  both  eyes  are  so  coordinated 
with  a  single  nerve  centre,  and  so  sub- 
ordinated to  that  centre,  as  to  produce 
a  single  impression  upon  it.  The  nerve 
centre  is  the  vital  focus  for  the  perceptive 
process ;  all  the  other  functions  and  forces 
are  subordinated  to  that.  Not  absolute 
simplicity  or  singleness  then,  but  that  kind 
of  simplicity  which  we  observe  in  the  phys- 
ical eye  and  in  other  organs  of  nature,  — ■ 
a  simplicity  which  consists  in  the  perfect 
and  coordinate  subordination  of  all  the 
parts  to  a  single  vital  centre,  —  that  is 
the  first  law  of  perception. 

But  what,  according  to   Christ,  consti- 
tutes   the  organism  of   perception  .f*     Evi- 


I08         THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION. 

dently  all  the  powers,  whether  external  or 
internal,  by  which  facts  are  grasped  in 
our  consciousness.  In  Matthew  xiii.  14, 
15,  Jesus  complains  that  the  people  saw,  or, 
in  other  words,  used  their  external  vision, 
without  attaining  to  real  perception,  be- 
cause their  heart  had  become  gross.  This 
imperceptive  condition  of  the  heart  shut 
up  the  exterior  organs  from  any  fair  use. 
In  other  words,  the  heart  was  the  interior 
organ  of  perception,  and  the  coordination 
of  the  exterior  organs  with  it  was  neces- 
sary to  the  complete  function.  But  what 
did  Jesus  mean  by  the  "  heart  "  }  To  the 
modern  mind  it  is  rather  a  vague  term. 
Quite  commonly  it  signifies  the  seat  of  the 
more  unreliable  emotions,  and  is  therefore 
the  last  centre  of  consciousness  to  be  se- 
lected as  the  organ  of  perception.  This, 
however,  was  not  the  meaning  of  the  w^ord 
to  the  Jews  or  to  Jesus.  In  this  very  pas- 
sage he  declares  the  function  of  the  heart 
to  be  understanding,  —  at  least  that  is  the 
translation ;  but  the  Greek  word  signifies 
a  putting  together,  like  that  which  the  in- 
terior nerve-centre  accomplishes  for  both 
the  eyes,  so  as  to  form  a  single  image.     It 


THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION.         109 

meant,  in  fact,  the  focusing  by  the  heart  of 
the  various  objective  impressions  that  en- 
ter through  the  external  organs  into  a  dis- 
tinct mental  and  moral  impression.  This 
comes  as  near  as  we  can  get  to  the  Greek 
suniemi.  And  this,  doubtless,  was  the 
meaning  of  Jesus.  To  understand  was  to 
perceive  intelligently  an  external  object,  so 
that  all  its  facts,  mental,  moral,  emotional, 
stood  together  in  a  perfect,  proportional 
effect.  As  has  been  already  intimated,  this 
kind  of  perception  is  better  described  by 
our  word  "  insight  "  than  by  "  understand- 
ing," which  we  have  relegated  to  the  logical 
faculty.  Now  the  Jewish  sacred  writers 
used  the  word  "  heart "  in  a  large  and  seri- 
ous sense  ;  they  included  under  it  the  intel- 
lect, imagination,  will,  and  conscience,  as 
well  as  the  feelings.  "  As  a  man  thmketh 
in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  "As  each  man 
purposeth  in  his  heart,  so  let  him  do." 
"  And  when  they  heard  this,  they  were 
pricked  in  their  hearts,"  evidently  refer- 
ring to  their  conscience.  In  fact,  to  the 
Jewish  conception,  the  heart  was  not  sepa- 
rate from  any  of  the  interior  faculties  or 
sensibilities.     It  was    all    of  them,  acting 


no         THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION. 

coordinately  in  a  process  of  choice  and 
issuing  in  conduct.  It  was  really  the  soul 
viewed  interiorly. 

To  be  sure,  some  say  there  is  no  soul ; 
that  is,  however,  a  question  of  words. 
There  is  such  a  thing  as  a  dead  body ;  it 
is,  as  we  say,  inanimate  ;  what  animated 
it  ?  Life.  Life  is  the  sphinx  whose 
mystery  no  scientist  can  solve.  Some  say 
it  is  simply  a  material  force  ;  but  what  dif- 
ference does  it  make  whether  you  call  it 
material  or  spiritual,  so  long  as  the  same 
things  can  be  predicated  of  it  ?  One 
thing  is  clear:  the  life  feels  and  knows. 
We  have  then  only  to  deal  with  the  ques- 
tion of  how  much  it  can  feel  and  know. 
That  is,  of  course,  to  be  settled  by  expe- 
rience. The  point  to  be  guarded  is  that 
it  is  really  the  life  which  sees.  But  the 
moment  we  examine  this  process  of  see- 
ing, we  find  that  it  is  in  the  last  analysis 
feeling.  Through  the  optic  nerve  the  life 
feels  the  image  focalized  upon  the  retina. 
Through  our  various  organs  the  life  with- 
in us  feels  the  external  world.  "  Feeling  " 
is  the  general  word  by  which  we  describe 
the  varied   forms    of    vivid  consciousness 


THE   LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION.  HI 

possessed  by  the  life.  That  is  the  first 
essential,  decided  characteristic  of  life:  it 
is  sensitive,  that  is,  it  feels.  By  this  sensi- 
tiveness or  feeling,  it  knows  the  external 
world,  it  knows  the  warmth  and  glory  of 
the  sunlight,  the  fragrance  of  the  violet, 
the  satisfaction  of  bread,  the  refreshing- 
ness  of  cold  water,  the  sharpness  of  fire, 
and  the  strength  of  iron.  Thus  the  life  in 
us  knows  directly  the  quality  of  things 
about  it.  This  is  its  ultimate  form  of 
knowledge,  —  it  knows  the  quality  of  the 
universe  as  related  to  itself.  It  knows  in 
the  sense  of  enjoying  and  suffering.  It 
is  the  life  itself  that  knows,  not  because 
some  faculty  reports  to  it,  but  because  it 
experiences.  Enjoyment  and  suffering 
are  knowledQ:e. 

True,  it  may  be  objected  that  feeling  is 
often  illusory ;  that  in  any  case,  it  gives  us 
only  the  secondary  qualities  of  matter;  and 
that  as  regards  the  ultimate  reality  of  the 
external  world,  we  have  nothing  to  trust 
but  our  feeling  that  it  exists.  We  have, 
for  instance,  no  logical  demonstration  that 
there  is  any  actual  existence  corresponding 
to  the  vision. of  the  locomotive  which  we 


112         THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION. 

see  approaching  us,  as  we  walk  upon  the 
track ;  but  the  struggle  for  existence,  which 
is  nature's  logic,  forces  us  irresistibly  in 
two  directions,  namely,  to  discipline  our 
feelings  and  to  trust  them. 

However  irrational  it  may  be  to  trust 
our  undisciplined  feelings,  it  is  still  more 
irrational  not  to  trust  feeling  at  all.  The 
man  who  does  not  get  off  the  track  when 
he  sees  the  locomotive  coming,  because  he 
believes  himself  conscious  only  of  the  sec- 
ondary qualities  of  matter,  demonstrates 
the  unreasonableness  of  philosophy.  Feel- 
ing and  doing  must  stand  together  some- 
how in  a  logical  unity ;  we  may  not  know 
what  we  know,  for  the  contents  of  our 
knowledge  may  be  obscure.  The  vision 
of  the  locomotive  may  be  only  on  the 
retina,  —  it  may  be  caused  in  part  by  solar 
radiation,  partly  by  changes  in  our  own 
nervous  tissue;  but  the  testimony  of  our 
feeling  that  there  is  something  coming, 
with  which  we  have  to  do,  something  that 
calls  for  the  putting  forth  of  external  force, 
is  surely  the  logic  of  life.  Faith  in  that 
logic  of  life  is  sane  and  rational,  precisely 
as  the  action  that  issues  from  distrust  of 
it  is  insane  and  irrational. 


THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION.         II3 

Not  only  does  the  life  feel  the  material 
universe,  but  it  feels  itself,  it  feels  its  own 
existence  and  enjoys  it,  —  is  moreover  loth 
to  part  with  it.  "  I  feel,  therefore  I  am,"  is 
sound  logic,  more  satisfactory  perhaps 
than  the  other  proposition,  "  I  think,  there- 
fore I  am."  A  healthy  man  has  a  vivid 
sense  of  his  own  existence  ;  that  is  the  most 
logical  ground  for  believing  in  it.  And 
not  only  does  a  man  feel  his  own  life,  but 
he  feels  other  lives.  This  is  the  case 
even  with  the  lower  animals.  The  mo- 
ther bird  feels  the  life  of  her  fledsrelino^s ; 
she  cannot  prove  their  existence  logically, 
but  she  knows  it,  for  she  is  keenly  sensi- 
tive to  it.  If  the  life  be  taken  from  her 
little  brood,  the  dead  fledgelings  will  not 
comfort  her ;  she  knows  the  difference,  she 
feels  the  absence  of  life.  Much  more  is 
this  the  case  with  human  beings.  The 
life  within  the  babe  feels  the  mother  life 
brooding  over  it,  and  nestles  close  to  it 
with  sweet  content.  The  little  child  can- 
not prove  the  existence  of  his  father's 
life,  but  it  is  a  joyful  certitude  to  him. 
When  the  father  dies,  he  misses  it,  for 
life  feels  life.     And  not  only  does  it  feel 


114        ^HE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION. 

life,  but  it  has  what  we  call  "  sympathy ;  "  it 
can  feel  for  life,  —  can  feel  the  sufferings, 
joys  and  needs  of  other  lives.  This,  too, 
is  the  case  with  lower  animals.  A 
wounded  animal  is  often  assisted  by  other 
animals,  sometimes  even  at  their  own  risk. 
The  mother  partridge  will  venture  her 
own  life  to  save  her  young.  Sacrifice  for 
others  is  not  an  infrequent  thing  in  the 
brute  creation.  Life  feels  for  life  at  times 
with  a  great  and  yearning  sensitiveness; 
and  this  feeling  of  hfe  for  life  in  ourselves 
is  what  we  call  "  humanity."  It  is  unques- 
tionably a  form  of  perception ;  it  is  the  life 
within  us,  feeling  the  quality  of  things, 
feeling  the  lives  about  us,  and  feeling  for 
those  lives. 

Feeling  is  a  vital  force,  and  like  all  other 
vital  forces  is  dependent  for  its  strength 
and  vividness  and  clearness,  not  only  on 
the  fullness  of  one's  general  vitality,  but  on 
specific  use  and  training.  A  man  whose 
vitality  is  in  any  way  exhausted  or  dull,  a 
man  who  has  treated  his  sensibility  as  an 
untrustworthy  force,  substituting  in  its 
stead  the  logical  faculty,  or  a  man  who  has 
allowed    the  sensibility  within  him  to  re- 


THE   LA  WS   OF  PERCEPTION.         1 1  5 

main  undisciplined,  cannot  expect  to  have 
much  of  that   kind  of  definite  realization 
which   a  vigorous   life    and    a    disciplined 
sensibility  afford.     To  the  neglected  or  un- 
disciplined heart,  life  must  always  appear 
half  real  and  out  of  proportion,  as  it  would 
to  a  feeble  and  untrained  eye.     To  sum 
up   matters,   it  is  the  life  itself,  by  virtue 
of  its  sensitiveness,  that  sees,  or,  in  other 
words,   feels,    and   thus    becomes   directly 
conscious  of    things;  for  sensitiveness    or 
consciousness    is    the    intrinsic  quality  of 
life.     It  is  true  that  we  do  feel  with  our 
bodily  organs,   but    the   bodily   organ  has 
neither  sensitiveness  or  existence  without 
the  life ;  when  the  life  departs  it  ceases  to 
be  an  organ.     It  may  therefore  justly  be 
said  that  it  is  the  life  which  feels ;  it  cer- 
tainly is  the  causative  force  in  the  process, 
the  material  part  of  the  organ  simply  sup- 
plying   the    conditions    under   which    the 
feeling  is  exercised.     Exactly  what  those 
conditions  are,  or  how  far  they  are  essential, 
we  do  not  know,  but  we  do  know  that  the 
conditions    are   somewhat    elastic.     Some- 
times the  life  exhibits  a  singular  power  to 
act   independently  of  the   conditions,  and 


Il6         THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION. 

this  power  of  the  Hfe  to  act  independently 
of  the  conditions  and  organs  we  call  by 
various  names,  such  as  animal  magnetism, 
clairvoyance,  and  hypnotism.  But  what- 
ever we  call  it,  it  is  simply  a  power,  pos- 
sessed by  this  altogether  mysterious  life- 
principle,  to  act  independently  of  the 
organs  through  which  it  usually  works. 

Of  course  it  makes  little  difference  what 
we  call  the  life ;  the  Romans  called  it  the 
"  anima,"  from  which  we  get  the  words 
"  animal  "  and  "  animation."  The  Greeks 
called  it  the  "  psyche,"  from  which  comes 
our  word  "psychical."  The  Anglo-Saxons 
called  it  "  soul."  More  lately  this  latter 
word  has  acquired  a  metaphysical  and  the- 
ological meaning  that  has  destroyed  its 
simplicity.  In  the  New  Testament  the 
word  put  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus,  by 
the  writers  of  the  gospel,  is  this  Greek 
"  psyche."  It  is  sometimes  translated  "  life  " 
and  sometimes  "  soul."  "  Soul  "  is  a  good 
word,  if  we  keep  clear  of  the  later  meta- 
physical and  theological  meanings,  and 
hold  it  to  the  good  old  Saxon  sense.  Tak- 
ing it  then  in  the  sense  of  "  life,"  it  may  be 
said  that  the  soul  itself  directly  perceives 
when  it  feels. 


THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION.  II/ 

But  there  is  another  element  that  enters 
into  this  process  of  perception ;  there  is  a 
power  that  we  call  "  reason."  Reason  does 
not  give  us  external  facts  ;  it  cannot  feel 
the  quality  of  things,  but  by  means  of  it 
we  see  the  relation  between  things.  For 
instance,  a  man  feels  a  sharp  pain  in  his 
hand ;  he  looks  down  and  sees  he  has 
rested  his  hand  on  the  point  of  a  tack. 
Reason  shows  him  the  relation  between 
those  two  things.  In  the  lowest  animals 
we  see  reason,  or,  rather,  intelligence,  which 
is  really  the  dawn  of  the  same  thing  acting 
just  as  it  does  with  us.  By  it  the  fish  per- 
ceives the  relation  between  the  feeling  of 
hunger  and  the  worm  that  floats  in  the 
water,  and  if  there  be  a  fish-hook  con- 
cealed within  the  worm,  intelligence  en- 
ables him  to  perceive  the  relation  between 
it  and  the  prick  which  he  receives.  By 
putting  together  feeling  and  intelligence 
he  becomes  a  clearer-sighted  and  a  wa- 
rier fish.  By  thus  showing  us  the  rela- 
tion between  different  feelings  and  sensa- 
tions, reason  enables  us  to  group  facts, 
and  so  to  reach  not  only  distinct  ideas, 
but  unities  or  wholes.     For  example,  the 


Il8         THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION. 

dawning  intelligence  in  the  babe  enables 
it  to  see  the  relation  between  the  mother's 
face  that  smiles  down  upon  it,  and  the 
motherly  arms  that  are  stretched  out  to  it, 
and  the  motherly  word  that  says  "  Come." 
Reason  shows  that  they  are  all  the  mani- 
festations of  that  one  loving,  sympathizing 
life,  which  the  child  feels  with  its  life. 
Thus,  by  the  coordination  of  feeling  with 
reason  the  child  distinctly  perceives  the 
mother.  As  the  crystalline  lens  gathers  the 
rays  of  light  into  a  focus,  and  thus  causes 
them  to  make  no  vague  impression,  but  a 
distinct  image,  so  reason  defines  and  con- 
verges the  impressions  of  our  conscious- 
ness into  clearly  related  facts.  It  may 
therefore  fairly  be  said  that  the  soul  or 
life-principle,  whether  in  animals  or  man, 
directly  perceives  the  external  world  by 
the  coordinate  action  of  sensibility  and 
reason.  Of  course  philosophers  may  easily 
raise  the  question  whether  perception  can 
be  trusted,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to 
what  perception  is. 

Between  the  brute  and  the  man,  how- 
ever, there  is  a  wide  difference.  Take  a 
highly  intelligent  horse   and  put  him  be- 


THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION.  1 19 

fore  Michael  Angelo's  Last  Judgment;  he 
can  see  the  canvas,  but  neither  the  truth 
nor  the  beauty  portrayed  upon  it.  A  man, 
however,  can  perceive  both,  for  in  him  the 
elements  both  of  reason  and  sensibility 
are  much  more  highly  developed.  In 
man,  reason  has  reached  a  more  complex 
form.  Sensibility  also  has  developed  and 
differentiated  itself  into  a  class  of  powers 
called  "  aesthetic,"  in  which  the  strands  of 
sensibility  and  intelligence  are  so  closely 
woven  that  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish 
feeling  from  thought,  or  thought  from  feel- 
ing. For  example,  the  true  artistic  sense 
gives  us  not  only  the  enjoyment  of  a  work 
of  art,  but  its  relative  value.  When  a 
genuine  artist  looks  at  the  Venus  de  Milo, 
he  feels  not  only  its  exquisite  beauty,  but 
its  transcendent  position  in  the  scale  of 
beauty.  Thus,  by  what  appears  to  be  a 
pure  sensibility,  we  have  conveyed  to  us 
two  aspects  of  an  external  fact,  namely, 
quality  and  relationship. 

The  same  is  true  in  regard  to  what  w^e 
call  "  conscience."  By  conscience  we  feel 
the  moral  quality  of  motives,  actions,  and 
choices,   but  by  the  same  power  we  also 


120         THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION. 

feel  moral  values  and  relationships.  A 
soldier,  wounded  and  athirst,  hesitates  to 
drain  the  small  cup  of  water,  with  which 
he  is  about  to  slake  his  thirst,  when  he 
sees  a  suffering  comrade  by  his  side.  On 
the  one  hand  is  an  intense  sensibility  to 
his  own  want ;  on  the  other,  a  noble  sensi- 
bility to  that  of  his  neighbor.  To  which 
shall  he  yield }  Reason  points  plainly  out 
the  superficial  relationship  of  either  act, 
without  going  to  the  bottom  of  the  ques- 
tion of  relationships ;  but  if  the  man  yields 
to  the  more  selfish  motive  and  proceeds 
to  drain  what  he  should  have  shared,  con- 
science gives  a  painful  throb,  precisely  as 
the  ear  of  the  musician  does  when  a  dis- 
cord is  made.  The  ear  of  a  musician  is 
sensitive  to  the  musical  scale;  it  is  aesthetic, 
or,  in  other  words,  wholly  perceptive;  it 
combines  both  sensibility  and  intelligence ; 
it  gives  both  quality  and  relationship.  It 
feels  not  only  the  sweetness  but  the  value 
of  every  note ;  it  feels  discords,  harmonies, 
musical  sequences,  correlations,  —  in  short, 
the  whole  universe  of  music.  In  like  man- 
ner conscience  is  sensitive,  not  only  to  the 
goodness  or  badness  of  deeds,  but  to  the 


THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION.         121 

relative  value  of  impulses ;  it  feels  which  is 
the  higher  note  of  conduct,  and  which  the 
lower;  you  can  write  out  the  whole  moral 
scale  by  observing  and  taking  down  its 
throbs.  Of  course  I  am  speaking  now  of 
a  finely  developed  and  properly  cultivated 
conscience,  just  as  I  was  speaking  a  mo- 
ment ago  of  a  properly  developed  and  cul- 
tivated ear  for  music.  Consciences  vary 
just  as  musical  or  artistic  taste  does ;  they 
exist  in  all  stages  of  development,  culture, 
and  neglect.  Nevertheless  it  is  true  of  con- 
sciences, as  of  artistic  taste  or  musical  ears, 
that  their  testimony  verges  toward  a  unity 
in  proportion  as  they  are  developed  and 
properly  cultivated,  for  conscience  is  a  per- 
ceptive organ,  not  a  pure,  a  priori  principle 
of  reason.  It  does  not  predict ;  it  cannot 
tell  us  save  of  what  it  has  experienced.  The 
conscience  of  the  savage  does  not  inform 
him  beforehand  that  the  forgiveness  of 
injuries  is  a  higher  impulse  than  revenge; 
but  when  he  feels  that  forgiveness  ex- 
tended toward  himself,  so  that  its  qual- 
ity comes  fairly  within  the  range  of  his 
experience,  then  conscience,  if  it  acts 
normally,  throbs  with  recognition  of   the 


122         THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION. 

higher  motive.  Not  only  so,  but  by  that 
same  throb  of  conscience  we  feel  the  high- 
est when  it  touches  us,  and  likewise  sol- 
emnly feel  it  to  be  the  highest,  nothing 
less  than  the  throne  of  glory  and  the  fount 
of  authority. 

Furthermore,  conscience  does,  by  this 
same  vivid  sense  of  values,  feel  the  iden- 
tity of  the  highest  with  all  divinity,  power, 
and  eternity,  as  when  the  Roman  centu- 
rion, beholding  the  motives  that  animated 
Christ,  called  out,  "  Truly  this  is  the  Son 
of  God."  Moreover,  by  that  same  vivid 
instinct  or  prescience  does  conscience  feel 
the  discord  and  the  horror  of  departure 
from  the  highest.  It  is  sensitive  to  the 
law  of  our  being  involved  in  the  moral 
scale,  and  to  that  majestic  eternal  law  in- 
volved in  our  having  within  us  the  highest ; 
for  conscience  catches,  as  it  were,  the  thun- 
derings  that  come  from  beneath  the  throne 
of  eternal  righteousness ;  it  feels  the  holi- 
ness of  the  moral  law,  its  awful  authority, 
its  inevitable  coordination  with  the  issues 
of  life  and  the  facts  of  the  hereafter,  and 
therefore  shudders  at  its  violation,  as  at 
the  pulling  down  of  the  pillars  of  the  sky, 


THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION.         1 23 

for  like  the  musical  ear  it  is  sensitive  to  all 
harmonies  and  possible  correlations,  —  it 
feels  the  unity  between  the  moral  and  the 
physical.  It  has  a  dread  intuition  of  that 
correspondence  between  moral  conduct 
and  external  consequence,  which  we  call 
desert.  Thus  that  throb  of  conscience  has 
given  us,  not  only  the  sense  of  right  and 
wrong,  but  the  moral  universe. 

Clearly,  therefore,  conscience  is  the  true 
perceptive  centre,  since  it  is,  of  all  the  per- 
ceptive elements,  the  highest,  and  it  is  by 
moral  perception  alone  that  we  are  en- 
abled to  put  together  all  things  that  we  see 
in  their  complete  whole ;  for,  of  course,  it  is 
impossible  that  we  should  completely  see 
any  group  of  facts  until  we  see  them  in 
this  highest  relationship  to  ourselves.  It 
is  when  we  view  them  as  related  to  the 
heart,  or,  in  other  words,  as  motives  to 
choice  and  action,  that  their  significance  is 
complete,  for  all  things  must  stand  to- 
gether finally  in  this  highest  relationship. 
Conscience  is  therefore  not  only  the  organ 
of  moral  perception,  but  the  true  centre  of 
all  perception.  Based  on  its  perceptive 
powers,  we   have    the   knowledge   of    the 


124         THE  LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION. 

highest  good ;  of  the  divine  sovereignty ; 
of  fundamental  law,  eternal  righteousness, 
and  of  character  in  general ;  and  based 
on  this  feeling  of  character,  we  have  those 
sensibilities  toward  righteous  character 
which  we  call  "  moral  affections,"  that  ha- 
tred of  evil  character  which  we  call  "  con- 
demnation," and  that  pitying  disposition  to 
redeem  it  which  we  call  "  grace."  Now  it 
needs  little  argument  to  show  the  reason- 
ableness of  Christ's  demand. 

These  are  all  elements  of  perception,  and 
a  complete  perceptive  act  involves  the  co- 
ordination of  them  all  and  their  subordina- 
tion to  conscience  as  the  perceptive  centre, 
and  this  coordination  or  putting  together 
is  the  Greek  suniesis,  or  understanding  of 
the  heart,  to  which  Jesus  referred.  If  in 
this  suniesis,  or  putting  together,  any  ele- 
ment of  perception  is  eliminated,  perverted, 
or  exaggerated,  then  by  just  so  much  the 
perception  is  obscured,  the  understanding 
of  the  heart  is  impaired.  The  first  great 
law  of  perception,  then,  is  simplicity,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  perfect  coordination  of 
all  the  perceptive  elements,  exterior  and 
interior,  in  subordination  to  the  perceptive 


THE  LAWS   OF  PERCEPTION.  1 25 

centre,  namely,  conscience.  Here,  then,  is 
the  second  point  of  divergence  between 
Jesus  and  his  critics.  The  position  has 
not  changed  since  the  time  of  the  Phari- 
sees. The  first  point  of  divergence  was, 
that  the  critics  insisted  primarily  upon 
proof  of  the  divine  majesty,  whereas  Jesus 
insisted  that  the  majesty  was  a  thing  to  be 
lived,  not  proved,  —  that,  like  other  facts  of 
nature,  it  belonged  to  the  department  of 
perceptive  knowledge.  With  facts  of  that 
class,  proof  is  always  a  subsidiary  affair. 
The  true  method  of  presentation  is  to 
quicken  the  intuition  by  more  and  more 
vital  embodiments  of  the  truth.  Thus, 
when  Nicodemus  expressed  the  blind  crit- 
icism of  his  party  and  the  necessity  of 
some  great  miracle  to  awaken  their  faith, 
Jesus  did  not  promise  a  greater  miracle  or 
a  more  intellectual  proof,  but  he  said  the 
Son  of  man  must  be  lifted  up.  The  truth 
must  have  a  more  profound  and  tragical 
symbolism,  an  embodiment  that  will  sink 
deeper  into  the  hearts  of  men.  The  sec- 
ond point  of  divergence  is  as  has  just  been 
stated ;  Jesus  insists  on  a  complete  coor- 
dination of  all  the  elements  of  perception. 


126         THE   LAWS  OF  PERCEPTION. 

upon  the  focalization  of  the  eye,  upon  the 
understanding  of  the  heart.  The  divine 
majesty  which  he  reveals  is  a  moral  fact ;  it 
is  a  divine  character ;  it  is  nothing  less  than 
the  highest;  it  is  potentially  within  every 
man,  a  thing  which  every  man's  conscience 
is  adapted  to  perceive,  provided  it  be  pro- 
perly developed,  disciplined,  and  coordi- 
nated with  the  other  powers;  therefore 
Jesus  insists  on  that  self-adjustment  which 
we  call  "  moral  discipline."  To  his  disci- 
ples he  said,  "  Unto  you,  w^ho  receive  my 
discipline,  it  is  given  to  see  the  things  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  but  to  them  that  are 
without  it  is  not  given,  for  seeing  they  see 
and  do  not  perceive." 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    LAW    OF    PURITY. 

In  the  fifth  chapter  of  Matthew,  Jesus, 
responding  to  the  religious  longings  of  his 
people    after   a   supernatural    deliverance, 
announces  the  presence  of  that  supernat- 
uralism,  and  declares  how  great  and  what 
kind  of  a  deliverance  it  is.     No  language 
of  prophet  or  psalmist,  no  angelic   hymn 
of  the  nativity,  has  pictured  too  vividly  the 
blessings   that   are  to  flow  from   it.     But, 
Jesus  reminds  them,  it  is  like  all  nature's 
blessings,  it  operates  through  organic  law, 
and  is   for   those    only   who   have    organs 
fitted  to  take  it  in.     A  spirit  so  surfeited 
with  the  world,  so  gross,  as   to  be  uncon- 
scious of    spiritual   want;    sensibilities   so 
occupied  with    fleshly  gratification   as  to 
have  no  appetite  for  righteousness  ;  or  an 
egotistic    mind,  —  surely  such    organs  as 
these  can  get  nothing  out  of  this  pure  and 
holy  manifestation  of  the  Father.     Happy 


128  THE  LAW  OF  PURITY. 

are  those,  he  says,  in  whom  the  divine  hand 
has  shaped  through  poverty,  sorrow,  or 
moral  struggle  a  better  organism,  for  theirs 
is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Particularly  is 
this  the  case  with  those  whose  perception 
has  been  purified.  To  them  the  new 
supernaturalism  will  indeed  bring  a  bea- 
tific vision,  things  that  prophets  and  kings 
have  longed  to  see,  nay,  that  angels  have 
desired  to  look  into.  "  Blessed  are  the 
pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see  God." 

The  law  of  simplicity  merges  into  the 
law  of  purity,  and  explains  it.  In  its  light 
we  see  exactly  what  the  peril  is  that  besets 
all  true  insight.  Without  the  proper  devel- 
opment and  discipline  of  the  sensibility, 
insight  comes  to  nothing.  There  is  no 
element  of  realization.  The  life  is  thrown 
out  of  actual  touch  with  the  external  world  ; 
it  becomes  devitalized,  and  dimly  realizes 
even  its  own  existence.  Indeed,  all  exist- 
ence is  to  it  a  shadow.  Everything  must 
be  proved,  yet  proof  is  unsatisfying,  for  it 
was  designed  to  corroborate  insight,  not  to 
supplant  it.  On  the  other  hand,  the  mo- 
ment we  attempt  to  discipline  the  heart 
into  clear  perception  we  encounter  a  super- 


THE  LAW  OF  PURITY.  1 29 

human  task,  arising  from  the  fact  that  the 
organ  of  insight  is  also  the  organ  of  pleas- 
ure. By  it,  also,  we  feel  pain,  particularly 
the  pain  of  weary  endeavor,  of  resistance 
to  temptation.  The  heart  was  made  to  see 
God,  but  the  heart  tastes  and  sees  at  the 
same  time,  and  its  gaze  is  riveted  upon 
objects  of  lust,  or  sources  of  pride.  Man 
has  but  so  much  sensibility.  The  soul  can- 
not feel  everything  at  the  same  time;  still 
less  can  it  feel  strongly  in  opposite  direc- 
tions, nor  can  it  endure  to  feel  that  which 
carries  with  it  a  strong  rebuke.  As  Jesus 
expressed  it,  where  the  treasure  is,  there 
will  the  heart  be  also.  The  soul  tends  to 
fix  upon  some  one  object  as  the  source  of 
joy.  It  concentrates  its  feeling  upon  that 
object,  goes  out  toward  it,  and  so  possesses 
it.  Gradually  it  loses  the  power  of  exer- 
cising feeling  in  other  directions.  The 
psychic  eye  is  formed,  the  focus  of  sensi- 
bility is  determined ;  the  result  is  that  a 
man's  feeling  can  only  act  perceptively  in 
coordination  with  certain  reasonings,  im- 
aginings, and  choices.  The  instant  he  is 
called  upon  to  see  anything  opposed  to  his 
heart's  treasure,  he  is  blind  as  regards  sen- 
sibility. 


130  THE  LAW  OF  PURITY. 

Of  course  there  is  but  one  solution  to 
this  problem.  The  impurity  is  due  to  a 
wrong  choice.  It  does  not  necessarily  de- 
file the  eye  to  look  upon  an  object  of  lust, 
but  the  will  that  decides  to  remain  looking, 
that  does  indeed  defile  the  eye,  and,  as  the 
will  itself  becomes  enslaved,  it  plunges  the 
heart  into  deeper  defilement,  and  makes 
its  vision  more  distorted.  We  must  not, 
however,  think  of  the  will  as  a  separate 
faculty.  It  is  the  soul  itself  that  defiles 
the  feeling  by  deciding  to  use  it  as  an  ave- 
nue of  base  enjoyment.  It  is  the  soul 
alone  that  can  purify  the  will  by  repenting, 
by  taking  another  and  a  purer  treasure,  by 
plucking  out  the  eye  that  offends,  by  fas- 
tening the  sensibility  upon  a  new  and  holy 
object,  and  so  forming  a  new  eye.  As  has 
been  said,  conscience  points  out  the  re- 
lation between  the  feelings,  and  it  shows 
us  which  should  be  subordinate,  which  is 
sovereign  and  authoritative.  It  is  when 
we  thus  coordinate  feeling  with  conscience, 
subordinating  it  as  conscience  indicates, 
that  we  have  what  we  call  "  moral  percep- 
tion," just  as  when  we  coordinate  reason 
with  feeling  we  have  rational  perception. 


THE  LAW  OF  PURITY.  131 

Now  one  of  the  first  things  we  note  in 
the  life  of  Jesus  is  his  persistent  attempt 
to  lay  hold  of  men's  enslaved  wills,  and 
turn  them  from  this  false  treasure.  He 
labors  hard  to  secure  moral  perception. 
The  kingdom  of  God,  the  manifestation  of 
the  supernatural,  will  be  nothing  to  them, 
unless  the  soul  or  life  can  be  led  to  take  a 
true  moral  attitude.  Repent,  he  says,  for 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  reach; 
possession  of  that  kingdom  is  a  process  of 
the  heart ;  man  sees,  enjoys,  possesses  with 
the  heart.  Jesus  dwells  upon  God's  method 
of  purification  by  stripping  us  of  the  ob- 
jects of  passion  and  pride.  Happy,  he 
says,  are  the  poor,  the  mourners ;  those 
that  have  moral  wants,  that  hunger  and 
thirst  for  righteousness ;  the  poor  in 
spirit,  those  that  are  freed  from  egotism. 
In  fact,  Jesus  dwells  much,  throughout  the 
Gospels,  on  freedom  from  pride,  self-glori- 
fication, and  egoism  of  all  kinds,  declaring 
to  his  disciples  that  unless  they  become  as 
little  children,  they  cannot  enter  into  — 
that  is,  experience  —  the  kingdom  of  hea- 
ven. But  the  purification  of  feeling  with 
Jesus  meant  a  good  deal   more  than   the 


132  THE  LAW  OF  PURITY. 

withdrawal  of  the  heart  from  evil.  It 
meant  the  progressive  yielding  up  of  the 
sensibility  to  the  highest  good.  As  he 
expressed  it  in  a  parable,  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like  a  man,  who,  having  found 
the  pearl  of  great  price,  sells  all  he  had  for 
it.  In  other  words,  a  man  must  put  his 
perception  to  its  noblest  use,  and  then  fol- 
low it  up,  for  all  he  is  worth.  He  must,  as 
Jesus  expressed  it  elsewhere,  walk  in  the 
light,  until  he  becomes  a  child  oi  the  light. 
Only  the  constant  laying  hold  by  the 
soul  of  that  which  is  noblest  and  highest 
in  its  environment,  at  the  sacrifice  of  every- 
thing else,  can  possibly  give  it  either  real 
possession  or  steady  vision  of  the  spiritual 
world.  On  this  positive  principle  alone  is 
insight  purified.  Purity  is,  in  fact,  an  ele- 
ment of  simplicity.  The  feelings  can  only 
be  refined  by  breaking  up  their  coordination 
with  all  that  is  evil,  and  coordinating  the 
life  itself  with  absolute  goodness ;  but  this 
is  not  the  whole  of  it.  In  fact,  evil  itself 
is  not  a  positive  external  thing  from  which 
a  man  can  separate  himself.  It  is  the  ab- 
sorption of  feeling  by  something  that  is 
low  and  transitory,  and  therefore  unworthy, 


THE  LAW  OF  PURITY.  133 

that  constitutes  the  evil.     There  is  no  evil 
in  the  desire  for  food  and  clothing ;  there 
is   evil   in   feeling  so   strong  a  desire  for 
them,  or  taking  so   much   satisfaction   in 
them,  as  to  be  anxious  about  them.     There 
is  no  evil  in  loving  father  and  mother,  only 
in  loving  them  more  than  one   who   em- 
bodies to  us  a  yet  higher  love.     "  He  that 
loveth  father  and  mother  more  than   me, 
says  Jesus,  is  not  worthy  of  me ; "  a  love 
that   does    not   yield    to  the  growth  of  a 
higher  love  is  unfit.     The  purification    of 
feeling   therefore    requires    not    only    the 
coordination  of  the  life  with  the    highest 
embodiments  in  its   environment,  but  the 
subordination  of  all  other  feelings  to  this 
process.     This  is,  in  fact,  evolution  ;  and  if 
we  strip  the  doctrine  of  evolution,  as  it  is 
now  taught,  of  all  that  is  dubious  and  un- 
proved,^ we  shall  find  the  residuum  to  be, 
that  the   universe   has  been   and  is  being 
developed    by   a    progressive    process    of 

1  For  a  view  of  what  science  has  not  proved,  see  Lord 
Salisbury's  address,  as  President  of  the  British  Scientific 
Association.  For  a  statement  of  "  the  only  doctrine  of 
evolution  that  is  indisputably  true,"  see  article  on  Chris- 
tian Socialism  {Nineteenth  Century,  November)  by  the 
Duke  of  Argyll. 


134  THE  LAW  OF  PURITY. 

organic  coordination  and  subordination. 
This  is  the  way  in  which  the  anima  or 
life  is  shaped  both  in  the  lower  orders  and 
in  man.  By  this  process  organs  are  devel- 
oped and  differentiated  ;  one  of  the  great 
facts  of  evolution  is  that  the  history  of  the 
individual  corresponds  to  the  history  of 
the  species. 

If  we  take  the  life  of  a  child  we  see  that 
feeling  first  develops  itself  powerfully  in 
the  sensuous  direction.  Those  sensibili- 
ties by  which  we  enjoy  the  material  uni- 
verse first  awake  to  consciousness.  The 
child-life  is  keenly  sensitive  to  physical 
pleasure  or  pain  ;  it  is  plunged  into  mis- 
ery by  the  prick  of  a  pin,  or  a  bruise  on 
the  head ;  it  goes  into  ecstasies  over  a 
box  of  candy.  Soon  there  comes  a  sharp 
struggle  between  what  we  call  "  animalism  " 
and  character,  that  is,  between  the  primal 
sensibility  of  the  anima  and  the  dawn  of  a 
higher  consciousness.  This  takes  at  first 
the  form  of  sensibility  toward  the  mother- 
life.  This  the  child  feels  ;  feels  its  sym- 
pathy, its  loving  care ;  feels  itself  impelled 
to  give  itself  up  to  that  loving  care.  Par- 
allel with  this  comes  the  sense  of  belong- 


THE  LAW  OF  PURITY.  135 

ingness  and  consequent  obligation,  ^Yhlch 
is  the  germ  of  conscience  and  also  of 
moral  faith.  Still  further  on,  if  develop- 
ment progresses,  the  child  comes  to  feel 
for  the  mother;  feels  her  weariness  and 
sacrifice,  her  pain  and  anxiety  on  its  own 
behalf. 

It  strives  to  embody  this  higher  sensi- 
bility in  acts  of  faith,  such  as  a  more  will- 
ing obedience,  till  at  last,  with  purified  and 
enlarged  sensibilities,  conjoined  with  grow- 
ing intelligence,  it  perceives  the  mother- 
life  in  its  wholeness,  its  righteousness,  and 
its  tender  glory.     It  now  for  the  first  time 
has  a  purely  invisible,  intangible,  supersen- 
suous    object,  which    it  feels    and  enjoys, 
with  which    it   is  identified,  for  which    it 
lives,  and  to  which  it  subordinates  all  lower 
feelings.    Having  become  coordinated  with 
the  mother's  life,  it  is  coordinated  with  all 
similar  kinds   of  life;  it  belongs  to  that 
species,  that  type,  that  world  of  existences. 
In   other  words,   it  has  developed   into  a 
spirit,    not    that    it  has    ceased    to   be   an 
anima  or  life,  but  the  anima,  or  psyche,  or 
soul,  as  the  ancients  called  it,  has  assumed 
a  higher  type,  and  all  its  properties  have 
been  newly  centred  and  vitalized. 


136  THE  LAW  OF  PURITY. 

This  higher  type  of  life  we  call  "  spirit." 
The  word  is  a  growing  one ;  it  has  come 
dow^n  from  the  ancients ;  it  meant  at  first 
the  breath,  possibly  the  divine  breath,  but 
at  all  events  something  supersensuous, 
both  in  its  consciousness  and  vis^or.  We 
still  cling  to  the  same  meaning.  A  man 
of  spirit  is  a  man  who  rises  above  certain 
forms  of  sensuousness,  above  the  fear  and 
the  power  of  material  things ;  he  is  to 
some  extent  freed  from  the  slavish  and 
childish  domination  of  matter,  —  is  not 
easily  mastered  by  either  physical  pleas- 
ure or  physical  pain.  So,  too,  our  concep- 
tion of  a  pure  spirit  is  that  of  a  soul  or 
life,  not  chained  to  the  body,  dominating 
material  things  instead  of  being  dominated 
by  them. 

We  call  such  a  being  "  supernatural," 
The  Scripture  calls  him  "  spiritual."  When 
Jesus  said,  "  God  is  a  Spirit,"  he  was  not 
attempting  to  tell  us  anything  about  God's 
mode  of  existence,  but  to  convey  to  us  the 
idea  that  God  was  morally  raised  above  the 
sensuous  plane  of  feeling  and  motive.  In 
fact  we  need  to  be  careful  lest  the  words 
carry  us  too  far,  giving  us  the  impression 


THE  LAW  OF  PURITY.  13/ 

that  God  has  no  Hfe,  or  psychic  existence 
such  as  would  correlate  Him  with  the  uni- 
verse and  enable  Him  to  be  felt  by  us, 
and  that  his  spirituality  has  in  it  no  moral 
virtue.  But,  at  any  rate,  so  far  as  man  is 
concerned,  the  spirit  is  the  developed  and 
purified  psyche,  or  life,  or  soul,  or  anima. 
As  St.  Paul  expresses  it,  first  comes 
that  which  is  psychical,  afterwards  that 
which  is  spiritual.  The  King  James'  ver- 
sion has  mystified  us,  by  translating  the 
Greek  word  "  psychical "  into  our  word 
"  natural ;  "  had  they  then  translated  the 
word  "  spiritual "  into  our  word  "  super- 
natural," it  would  have  been  all  of  a  piece. 
The  word  "  natural "  is,  however,  a  very 
poor  translation,  for  there  is  in  reality  no 
such  distinction.  The  spiritual  is  just  as 
natural  as  the  psychical,  and  our  relation 
to  God  as  natural  as  that  to  our  own 
mother.  The  point  of  what  I  have  been 
saying  is  this,  that  purification  is  insepa- 
rable from  evolution.  As  has  been  said 
in  a  former  chapter,  the  law  of  righteous- 
ness is  the  law  of  love,  and  is  the  develop- 
ment of  man's  reciprocity  with  God  and 
his  fellow-man  into  a  complete  spiritual  em- 


138  THE  LAW   OF  PURITY. 

bodiment.  This  is  accomplished  through 
the  man's  identifying  himself  with  the  em- 
bodiment of  divine  love  wherever,  in  his 
environment,  he  finds  it.  This  is  the  law, 
not  only  of  righteousness  but  of  insight; 
it  is  the  law  for  the  evolution  of  the 
prophet,  the  seer,  and  the  apostle.  Nay, 
it  is  not  only  the  law  by  which  one  sees 
the  heavenly  world,  but  the  law  by  which 
alone  one  can  possess  and  enjoy  it.  It 
might  therefore  almost  be  called  the  law 
of  salvation  itself.  In  fact,  Jesus  insisted 
upon  it  with  great  earnestness.  Not  only 
did  he  have  his  disciples  baptize  all  ad- 
herents in  his  name,  thus  solemnly  identi- 
fying them  with  himself  and  his  ideal  of 
purification,  but  he  declared  that  the  more 
crucial  was  the  identification  the  greater 
would  be  the  power  to  see  and  enjoy  spir- 
itual things.  "  Blessed  are  ye  when  men 
shall  revile  you,  and  persecute  you,  and 
say  all  manner  of  evil  against  you  for  my 
name's  sake.  Great  is  your  reward ;  for  so 
persecuted  they  the  prophets  that  w^ere 
before  you."  Such  is  the  course  of  the 
prophet's  life,  such  the  law  of  his  devel- 
opment.    No  insight  can  be  gained  except 


THE  LAW  OF  PURITY.  1 39 

by  a  struggle  with  the  sensuous  element  in 
us  and  about  us.  Evolution  means  strug- 
gle, conflict,  subordination  of  the  lower  to 
the  higher,  coordination  with  the  supreme. 
"  Except  a  man  bear  his  cross  and  come 
after  me,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple."  The 
man  who  will  enter  the  spiritual  world 
must  move  with  its  organ  onward  and 
upward. 

Concerning  those  who  did  not  thus  be- 
come his  disciples,  identifying  themselves 
with  his  movement,  he  says,  "  In  them  is 
fulfilled  the  words  of  Isaiah  the  prophet. 
Seeing  they  see  and  do  not  perceive,  their 
heart  is  waxed  gross,  their  eyes  have  they 
closed,  lest  at  any  time  they  should  see 
with  their  eyes,  and  comprehend  with  their 
heart,  and  should  turn,  and  I  should  heal 
them."  So  delicately,  yet  forcibly,  does 
he  picture  that  half  conscious  shrinking 
from  the  truth  of  the  soul  that  anticipates 
its  crucial  import,  and  has  determined  to 
remain  identified  with  the  sensuous  world. 
But  it  is  in  the  fourth  Gospel  that  the  law 
of  evolution  is  most  plainly  stated,  in  the 
talk  with  Nicodemus,  to  which  I  have 
already  referred.     Having  stated  that  what 


140  THE  LAW  OF  PURITY. 

the  Pharisees  wanted  was  not  proof  but 
sight,  he  then  proceeds  to  say  that  what 
is  born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh,  what  is  born 
of  the  spirit  is  spirit,  and  forthwith  enun- 
ciates the  law  of  spiritual  development  in 
the  expression,  "  Except  a  man  be  born  of 
water  and  the  spirit  he  cannot  enter  the 
kingdom  of  God."  Here  he  plainly  refers 
to  the  purification  of  insight,  for  water  was 
the  great  Jewish  symbol  of  purification, 
and  to  the  Jewish  mind  it  was  quite  natural 
that  the  spirit  of  God  should  act  in  coor- 
dination with  a  symbolic  embodiment  like 
baptism.  Furthermore,  Nicodemus'  own 
conscience  could  tell  him  what  baptism  it 
was  that  Jesus  meant.  The  baptism  of 
John  was  the  one  notable  moral  fact  at 
that  time ;  it  was  more  than  a  fact ;  it  was 
the  sharpest  kind  of  a  moral  issue.  The 
vital  question  of  the  time  then  was,  whether 
a  man  should  identify  himself  with  John 
or  not,  for  all  recognized  John  as  a  pro- 
phet, so  that  the  question  practically  was, 
whether  or  not  one  would  identify  himself 
with  God.  The  Pharisees  recognized 
John's  prophetic  illumination,  and  his  ap- 
peals  touched  their   consciences;    but    to 


THE  LAW  OF  PURITY.  14 1 

submit  to  his  baptism  would  be  to  give  up 
their  position  of  headship ;  it  would  be 
yielding  the  authority  of  culture  and  social 
position  to  the  authority  of  a  plain  and 
somewhat  uncouth  but  spiritual  manhood. 
It  was,  in  short,  the  old  crucial  struggle 
between  flesh  and  spirit.  The  Pharisees 
would  not  give  up  their  egotism ;  therefore 
they  stood  off  and  pretended  that  by  virtue 
of  their  scholarship,  their  knowledge  of 
the  law,  in  short,  their  education,  they  pos- 
sessed an  independent  criterion  of  religious 
knowledge.  They  criticised  first  John, 
then  Jesus. 

By  this  process  they  shut  out  their  sen- 
sibilities from  the  spiritual  forces  and 
vitalities  of  their  day,  and  shut  their  per- 
ceptive powers  up  to  the  withering  effects 
of  egotism.  Isolated  from  God's  great 
natural  unities,  they  were  perishing,  like 
any  isolated  thing  in  nature,  and  of  this 
Jesus  warned  them.  In  stating  to  Nico- 
demus  the  law  of  spiritual  perception  and 
evolution,  which  they  had  violated,  he 
shows  it  to  be  no  new  thing,  but  a  prin- 
ciple which  Nicodemus,  as  a  master  of 
Israel,  ought  to  have  known ;    an  earthly 


142  THE   LA  W   OF  PURITY. 

phenomenon  of  religious  life  that  came 
quite  within  his  observation.  By  water 
and  the  spirit,  —  that  is,  by  baptism,  or,  in 
general,  by  identifying  themselves  with 
purifying  and  God-given  spiritual  embodi- 
ments,—  men  had  always  developed  more 
or  less  spiritual  vitality.  If  Christ  brought 
in  a  new  birth,  it  was  simply  because  identi- 
fication with  so  perfect  an  embodiment  as 
himself  completed  the  embryonic  process 
of  development  and  ushered  the  soul  into 
complete  organic  coordination  with  the 
spiritual  world. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

LIGHT. 

The  Co7idition  of  P erception. 

The  general  term  employed  by  Jesus  to 
describe  his  revelation  of  the  supernatural 
was  "  light."  This  word  stands  in  nature 
for  the  condition  of  all  perception.  True, 
it  may  be  used  in  a  vague  sense ;  but  Jesus 
did  not  so  use  it.  His  teaching  was  invari- 
ably consistent  with  its  precise  and  natural- 
istic significance.  Light  does  not  take 
the  place  of  the  perceptive  organs ;  it 
arouses,  develops,  and  stimulates  them ; 
indeed,  it  is  the  original  environment  under 
which  they  are  evolved. 

Furthermore,  it  coordinates  them  with 
the  external  universe.  It  is  by  this  coor- 
dination that  light  imparts  knowledge ;  and 
in  this  respect  it  is  a  correct  type  of  the 
whole  revelatory  process.  Two  men  are 
groping  about  in  the  night ;  naturally  they 
argue     about     their      surroundings ;    day 


144  LIGHT. 

breaks;  light  is  poured  in;  discussion  is 
at  an  end ;  argument  and  proof  have  lost 
their  raison  d'etre;  for  these  latter  me- 
thods of  knowledge  belong  to  an  impercep- 
tive  state.  Besides,  proof  has  small  relation 
to  the  evolution  of  perception,  —  on  the 
contrary,  light  is  progressively  creative ; 
therefore,  nature  being  as  it  is,  we  should 
expect  that  God  would  give  his  revelation 
by  the  element  of  light  rather  than  of 
proof ;  and  this  was  the  precise  position  of 
Jesus.  He  was  continually  curbing  the 
clamor  of  men  for  proof.  Men  demanded, 
Are  you  the  Christ?  His  answer  was  in 
effect.  Follow  and  see.  The  Christ  must 
be  lived,  not  proved.  To  live  is  to  trans- 
mit. Thus,  to  live  the  life  of  God  is  to 
transmit  God.  This  is  what  light  stands 
for  in  general,  —  the  process  of  transmis- 
sion ;  it  transmits  the  quality  of  the  exter- 
nal world  to  our  eye.  It  is  not,  however, 
the  only  transmitting  agent.  Transmission 
is  a  common  function  in  nature ;  it  is  the 
ordinary  method  of  coordination  between 
our  organs  and  external  facts.  The  atmos- 
phere, for  instance,  transmits  light.  In  a 
London  fog  one  can  hardly  see  across  the 


LIGHT.  145 

street ;  but  let  a  fresh  breeze  sweep  in,  and 
he  can  see  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's  looming 
overhead. 

Revelation  is  often  the  coming  in  of  a 
better  transmissive  element  or  substance. 
A  convex  lens  so  transmits  light  as  to 
assist  the  imperfect  eye.  A  pair  of  specta- 
cles redeems  a  man's  youthful  vision.  We 
have  constructed  the  microscope,  and  lo, 
the  bacteria  are  with  us ;  they  were  not 
the  creation  of  our  brain,  though  the  micro- 
scope was.  So,  too,  with  the  telescope  ; 
man  has  not  made  the  stars  larger ;  he  has 
simply  found  a  better  transmitting  agent. 
So  God  has  grown  greater  because  man's 
soul  is  the  object-glass,  and  under  God's 
hand  it  has  gradually  gotten  into  better 
shape.  Sometimes  the  oculist  furnishes 
for  us  a  temporary  lens  just  to  develop 
vision ;  as  soon  as  the  organ  is  perfect  the 
lens  is  taken  away.  This  must  always  be 
the  case  with  a  true  revelatory  process.  It 
is  adapted  to  the  development  of  the  organ. 
When  the  perfect  organ  is  developed  the 
imperfect  method  of  refraction  is  done 
away.  Knowledge  then  becomes  direct. 
At  first  "  one  sees  through  a  glass  darkly," 


146  LIGHT. 

afterward  "  face  to  face."  Now  we  are  sur- 
rounded by  transmitting  agencies,  and  if 
there  be  a  God,  they  are  surely  in  his 
hands.  There  are,  in  fact,  transmitting 
agencies  for  every  organ,  —  the  hght  for  the 
eye,  atmosphere  for  the  ear  and  nose,  water 
for  the  palate,  and  subtler  elements  still  for 
subtler  organs.  In  fact,  all  elements  and 
substances  are  transmissive.  Iron  trans- 
mits heat;  copper,  electricity.  Often,  in- 
deed, one  element  transmits  another,  as  the 
air,  the  light.  To  sum  it  up,  the  so-called 
realities  of  life  are  transmitted,  not  demon- 
strated. 

Now  Christ's  position  was  this,  —  he 
maintained  that  this  process  of  transmis- 
sion extends  into  the  spiritual  world.  Mat- 
ter transmits  mind  ;  material  energy  trans- 
mits personal  energy.  It  certainly  was  true 
in  his  case.  One  can  but  be  struck  with  the 
divine  magnetism  of  that  man ;  surely  his 
spiritual  forces  radiated  through  his  physi- 
cal energies ;  his  body  was  like  a  harp  of 
God.  The  light  that  played  about  his 
face  was  a  medium  for  the  light  that 
played  about  his  soul ;  the  vibrations  of 
the  external  air  transmitted  with  thrilling 


LIGHT.  147 

power    the  vibrations   of    his  spirit.     All 
these    external   elements   were   good    con- 
ductors of  the  spiritual  forces  that  dwelt 
within  his  bosom ;  and  this  may  be  said  to 
be  true  in  general.     Not  more  surely  does 
copper  wire  conduct  electricity  than  do  the 
forces   of  the  body  conduct  those  of  the 
mind.     A  shock  of   personality  is  as  dis- 
tinct  as   that  of  galvanism;  the   sunshine 
of   a  great   heart   penetrates    outward   as 
surely  as  the  sunshine  of  June.     In  gen- 
eral it  may  be  said  that  matter  is  a  per- 
fectly natural  medium  for  the  transmission 
of  life  ;  the  two  have  constitutional  correla- 
tions.    Doubtless  this  has  led  to  the  mate- 
rialistic view  of  life.    Life  is,  in  one  aspect,  a 
material  force,  penetrating  matter,  organ- 
izing it,  and  radiating  through  it.     Every- 
where   in    nature   matter    appears    as    the 
medium  of  life.     A  kernel  of  corn  trans- 
mits the  life  force,  just  as  Jesus  described, 
so  as  to  lay  hold  of  the  earth  and  produce 
in  it  a  chemical  change.     Yet  so  entirely 
does  the  transmitting  process  extend  into 
the  realm  of  invisible  life  that  all  animal 
reproduction  is  accomplished  by  the  invisi- 
ble life  force  of  sexual  love.     Without  this 


148  LIGHT. 

invisible  psychic  energy  of  passion  there 
would  be  no  animal  forms.  But  this  is  not 
all  the  fact ;  the  material  world  is  not  only 
a  medium  for  the  spiritual,  but  it  actually 
represents  it,  for  it  corresponds  to  it 
throughout. 

To  return,  for  instance,  to  the  element 
of  light ;  it  is  not  only  a  good  conductor  of 
spiritual  force,  but  it  furnishes  us  with  a 
type  of  it,  for  there  is  a  resemblance  be- 
tween the  two.  The  sunshine  of  heaven 
is  like  that  of  a  human  spirit.  The  soul 
that  experiences  both  finds  a  likeness  be- 
tween them.  So,  too,  with  cool  water  and 
spiritual  comfort;  wide  apart  as  are  the 
material  and  spiritual,  the  soul  that  tests 
them  both  finds  a  similarity.  So  it  is  with 
height  and  depth,  or  physical  exaltation 
and  depression  ;  they  are  in  experience  like 
their  spiritual  counterparts.  The  body  is 
a  wondrous  symbol  of  the  soul ;  its  upright- 
ness of  posture  resembles  and  gives  name 
to  the  uprightness  of  life.  The  strength 
of  Christ's  supporting  arm,  when  it  laid 
hold  of  Peter,  resembled  his  supporting 
love.  The  warmth  of  his  hand  was  like 
the  warmth  of  his  heart.     His  face  imaged 


LIGHT.  149 

the  soul  within.  Thus  the  physical  is,  so 
far  as  we  know  it,  a  reproduction  of  the 
spiritual,  not  only  as  regards  force,  but  also 
idea,  for  there  is  neither  height,  nor  depth, 
nor  sky,  nor  cloud,  nor  mountain-top,  nor 
barren  waste,  nor  coal  of  fire,  nor  scorpion's 
sting,  nor  poison  dart,  nor  gold,  nor  pearl, 
nor  precious  stone,  nor  pit  of  darkness,  nor 
any  new  discovery  of  force,  nor  gunpowder, 
nor  dynamite,  nor  electric  motor,  that  has 
not  its  resemblance  in  the  world  of  spirit 
and  the  soul  of  man. 

We  have  just  as  good  ground  for  be- 
lieving in  the  universal  correspondence 
of  matter  to  life,  as  we  have  for  accepting 
the  uniformity  of  nature  or  the  correlation 
of  forces. 

It  is  no  fancy,  no  mere  theory;  it  is  the 
experience  of  a  man's  own  life  that  testifies 
to  the  parallelism,  and  so  cries  out  of  expe- 
rience, "  How  sharper  than  a  serpent's 
tooth  it  is  to  have  a  thankless  child,"  or 
how  "  The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strained, 
but  droppeth  as  the  gentle  dew  from  hea- 
ven." So  far  as  human  experience  goes 
every  visible  object  is  the  type  of  some  in- 
visible reality ;  not  only  is  it  a  type,  but 


1 50  LIGHT. 

also  it  is  a  prophecy  and  a  promise,  for  the 
two  are  parts  of  one  whole,  and  that  whole 
is  in  process  of  development ;  first  that 
which  is  physical ;  afterward  that  which  is 
spiritual.  Indeed,  this  correspondence  be- 
tween the  visible  and  invisible  is  the  foun- 
dation both  of  poetry  and  prophecy;  for 
while,  on  the  one  hand,  the  universe  is  a 
series  of  mechanical  facts,  to  be  treated  in  a 
mechanical  w^ay,  it  is  to  the  higher  sensi- 
bility a  language  of  God,  being  no  less  than 
a  vast  series  of  intelligible  symbols,  ever 
speaking  to  the  ear  of  man,  ever  prophesy- 
ing to  him  concerning  the  invisible  reali- 
ties by  which  he  is  surrounded.  Each 
humblest  thing  tells  of  its  unseen  like- 
ness :  — 

"  Not  a  natural  flower  can  grow  on  earth 
Without  a  flower  upon  the  spiritual  side 
Substantial,  archetypal." 

Thus  a  child  does  not  know  the  mother- 
life  by  logical  proof ;  the  mother-look  sug- 
gests the  mother's  heart ;  such  suggestion 
is  not  only  soul-transference,  but  thought- 
transference. 

And  this  leads  us  to  a  fact  that  lies  at 
the  bottom   of    revelation.     Revelation  is 


LIGHT.  151 

not  transmission  alone,  but  personal  radia- 
tion. In  this  respect,  also,  Christ's  term 
holds  good.  Light  not  only  transmits,  but 
it  radiates.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  type  of  all 
radiation  ;  having  first  radiated,  it  becomes 
then  transmissive,  and  this  same  character- 
istic belongs  to  persons.  Personal  life 
radiates  ;  there  is  such  a  thing  as  a  radi- 
ant life,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word. 
Moreover,  it  is  a  peculiarity  of  personal  life 
that  its  radiation  is  largely  determined  by 
character  and  will.  This  differentiates  the 
field  of  revelation  widely  from  the  field  of 
science ;  the  revealing  personality  is  not 
passive  like  a  stone  or  a  plant,  nor  are  its 
depths  approachable  at  the  will  of  the 
observer. 

No  matter  what  the  transmitting  agen- 
cies, a  great  personality  does  not  radiate  its 
innermost  life  save  by  its  own  will  and 
activity ;  therefore,  whatever  our  instrumen- 
tality for  investigation,  we  stand  help- 
less before  such  a  personality.  Voluntary 
radiation  is  the  foundation  factor  in  the 
process.  The  New  Testament  may  be  a 
perfect  transmitting  agency,  but  it  is  not 
every  one  who  can  find  God  in  it,  —  nay, 


152  LIGHT. 

but  he  to  whom  God  wills  to  disclose  him- 
self. Revelation  is  a  personal  matter  be- 
tween a  man  and  his  Maker ;  the  child  does 
not  first  seek  the  father,  but  the  father  the 
child.  When  the  child  begins  to  seek,  the 
father's  method  is  already  provided  for  him, 
nor  is  the  method  arbitrary,  but  based  on 
personal  laws.  There  are  personal  laws 
even  between  man  and  man  whose  viola- 
tion shuts  up  reciprocity,  and  makes  the 
radiation  of  one's  inner  self  not  only  unfit, 
but  impossible.  Christ  could  not  disclose 
his  heart  to  the  people  of  Nazareth ;  he 
could  only  disclose  himself  to  those  who 
were  willing  to  conform  to  the  truth.  The 
Pharisees  shut  him  up  to  himself.  He 
that  willeth  to  do  a  son's  part  in  the  reci- 
procity shall  know  of  the  Fatherhood.  But 
the  will  must  meet  the  practical  test  of 
identifying  itself  with  the  outward  embodi- 
ment. "  He  that  followeth  me,  said  Jesus, 
shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall  have 
the  light  of  life."  It  is  by  radiation,  in  an 
ever  onward  movement,  that  a  life  makes 
itself  felt;  for  those  who  accompany  it. 
Having  been  radiated,  it  then  becomes 
transmissive    and    interpretative;    it    is    a 


LIGHT.  153 

luminous  personal  atmosphere.  The  man 
who  follows  the  radiant  life  of  Christ  is 
pervaded  by  it ;  he  sees  the  whole  universe 
differently ;  he  is  enveloped  by  clearer  air. 
We  are  always  surrounded  by  lives. 
Their  personal  atmosphere  varies  in  its 
transmissive  power.  Sometimes  it  is  lumi- 
nous ;  sometimes  obscure.  There  is  the 
life  of  the  community,  the  nation,  the 
race ;  these  all  constitute  atmospheres.  In 
our  egotism,  we  think  our  views  are  due  to 
our  own  insight  or  reason.  Little  do  we 
realize  to  how  vast  an  extent  they  are  dis- 
torted or  clarified  by  the  transmissive  effect 
of  other  minds,  other  imaginations,  other 
lives.  The  atmosphere  of  savagery  shuts 
in  the  savage.  The  atmosphere  of  dog- 
matic thought  shuts  in  the  zealot.  The 
light  of  science  is  the  atmospheric  effect 
of  a  few  strong  intellectual  lives  such  as 
Spencer  and  Huxley.  Sometimes  it  trans- 
mits ;  sometimes  it  obscures.  Lives  full 
of  unholy  egotism  are  radiated  about  us ; 
they  come  between  us  and  the  New  Testa- 
ment ;  they  are  shadowy  as  the  fog.  There 
is  in  them  no  purified  sensibility,  no  child- 
like intuition  of  God.     The  radiation  of  a 


154  LIGHT. 

pure  spiritual  life  is  like  the  coming  in  of 
a  fresh  sunlit  breeze.  A  personality  in 
which  self  is,  however  unconsciously,  the 
supreme  object  invariably  casts  a  heavy 
shadow.  Egoism  always  shuts  out  God. 
Such  is  the  world's  life  that  surrounds  us, 
transmitting  the  sunlight  of  God  through 
mists  and  vapors.  This  false  transmissive- 
ness  distorts  the  glory  of  God,  as  it  does 
the  goodness  of  man.  Man  has  but  one 
way  to  overcome  it ;  he  must  live  it  down. 
This  is  also  God's  way;  this  was  what 
Christ  did.  He  lived  in  the  world  until 
he  had  radiated  the  pure  life  of  God,  so 
that  he  was  able  to  say  to  his  disciples, 
"  Be  of  good  cheer.  I  have  overcome 
the  world."  Revelation  therefore  involves 
struggle,  —  the  warfare  of  personal  light 
with  personal  darkness.  The  spiritual 
personality  is  positively  antagonistic  to  the 
unspiritual,  for  it  discloses  its  lack ;  it  illu- 
mines the  path  of  duty  and  development ; 
it  reveals  the  cross  of  self-sacrifice. 

Thus  revelation  is  inseparable  from  the 
radiation  of  God's  personal  quality.  This 
makes  it  unpleasant  to  any  one  who  does 
not  wish  to  be  made  better,  for  it  troubles 


LIGHT.  155 

the  conscience.  Jesus  called  it  a  judg- 
ment. "  This  is  the  judgment,  that  light 
is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  have  loved 
darkness  rather  than  light."  From  the 
standpoint  of  Christ  this  must  necessarily 
be  the  case,  for  divine  revelation  is  not  a 
communication  brought  from  an  unnatural 
world ;  it  is  a  direct  radiation  from  the 
heart  of  that  God  who  lives  among  us, 
whom  all  our  acts  concern.  That  such  a 
radiation  should  be  not  only  painfully  illu- 
minative, but  an  absolute  shock  to  our  im- 
morality and  egoism,  might  naturally  be 
expected.  When  St.  John  summed  up  his 
experience  of  Christ's  disclosure,  he  said, 
"  God  is  light,  and  in  Him  is  no  darkness  at 
all."  The  radiation  of  such  a  life,  without 
a  shadow  of  egoism,  did  indeed  call  forth 
from  the  world  a  cry  of  rage  and  hatred. 
It  has  never  been  pleasant  to  the  selfish- 
ness of  man,  and  can  only  be  endured  by 
one  who  is  willing  to  be  chastened  by  it. 
To  put  it  squarely,  a  divine  revelation  can 
be  seen  only  by  one  who  permits  it  to  be 
felt ;  it  must  work  its  way  by  finding  the 
highest  sensibility  in  every  man,  and  over- 
coming the  antagonism  of  his  lower  feel- 


156  LIGHT. 

ings,  till  the  heart  becomes  an  organ  of 
insight ;  but  unless  the  man's  will  coope- 
rates, there  can  be  no  light  of  life  for  him, 
nor  will  he  ever  find  a  satisfactory  proof 
of  God's  existence.  God  does  not  prove 
himself.     God  lives. 


CHAPTER   X. 

EVIDENCE. 

It  may  be  objected  that  the  foregoing 
discussion  does  not  answer  the  question, 
"  What  is  Perception  ?  "  But  surely  a 
statement  of  the  laws,  involving  as  it  does 
the  method  and  practical  characteristics, 
comes  about  as  near  knowledge  as  we  can 
get,  with  our  present  faculties.  Clearly  it 
is  the  only  knowledge  we  possess  of  either 
matter  or  spirit.  Obviously  the  character- 
istic thing  in  Christ's  view  of  perception 
is,  that  feeling  is  made  coordinate  with 
reason  as  a  source  and  criterion  of  know- 
ledge, instead  of  being  placed  on  an  infe- 
rior level.  It  is  the  life  that  knows,  and 
the  knowledge  is  acquired  and  possessed 
by  the  sensibility,  acting  coordinately  with 
the  reason,  which  latter  power  simply  gives 
the  relation  of  things.  One  can  but  be 
struck  with  the  approximation  of  our  mod- 
ern naturalism  to  this  view  of  Jesus.     As 


158  EVIDENCE. 

our  observation  of  nature  becomes  closer, 
we  have  left  behind  us  the  old  metaphys- 
ical notion  that  there  is  a  separate  know- 
ing power  to  which  the  feelings  report, 
and  that  when  knowledge  has  once  been 
seized  by  this  intellectual  organism,  we 
then  first  possess  it.  It  is  true,  we  have 
not  yet  recovered  practically  from  the  ef- 
fect which  this  view  has  produced  upon 
our  imagination.  To  the  popular  mind, 
feeling  still  stands  discredited,  and  the 
notion  still  prevails  that  in  the  reason 
we  possess  the  only  certain  and  ultimate 
source  of  knowledge.  It  is  only  by  de- 
grees, through  books  like  those  of  Mr. 
Kidd  and  Mr.  Balfour,  that  the  waves  of 
this  sounder  modern  philosophy  begin  to 
reach  us,  and  people  begin  to  realize  that 
feeling  is,  equally  with  reason,  a  criterion ; 
nay,  more,  since  reason  cannot  of  itself 
make  us  acquainted  with  any  actual  fact 
or  quality,  not  even  any  fact  or  quality  of 
our  own  selves,  that  there  must  therefore 
be  in  all  our  knowledge  what  is  called  an 
overtone  of  feeling.  In  short,  the  whole 
trend  of  naturalistic  thought  is  toward  this 
law  of   Christ.     It  is  really  bringing  out 


EVWENCE.  159 

the  necessity  for  the  purification  and  de- 
velopment of  feeling  as  one  of  the  essential 
criteria  of  knowledge. 

I  have  applied  the  word  "  reason "  to 
animals  as  well  as  men.  This  is  quite  out 
of  accord"  with  the  older  view,  but  it  agrees 
with  the  evolutionary  conception.  Accord- 
ing to  this,  reason  is  but  the  larger  and 
higher  development  of  the  power  by  which 
the  robin  discerns  the  relation  between 
the  cherry  and  his  own  stomach,  and  the 
whole  evolution  of  the  power,  both  in  the 
brute  and  in  man,  is  due  to  the  same  cau- 
sation,—  the  pressure  of  environment  and 
the  struggle  for  survival.  So  far  as  I  can 
see,  the  evolution  of  the  power  in  man  in- 
troduces no  new  element ;  it  is  still  simply 
the  power  to  discern  relations.  Out  of  this 
we  get  what  we  call  "  unities,"  or  wholes 
and  parts ;  from  this  in  turn  we  derive 
analysis  and  synthesis.  By  this  also  we 
see  that  certain  things  constantly  stand  to- 
gether in  the  relation  of  sequence.  Thus 
we  get  the  idea  of  uniformity  and  causal- 
ity. As  sensibility  in  man  has  developed 
in  complexity  and  quality,  the  perception 
of    relations    has    also    become    complex. 


l6o  EVIDENCE. 

Necessitous  situations  have  demanded  the 
keenest  exercise  of  the  sensibility  and  a 
continuous  application  of  it  to  new  cases. 
Thus  reason  has  given  us  what  we  call 
"  principles  of  action."  Especially  has  the 
struggle  for  existence  forced  us  in  the  two 
directions  previously  mentioned,  namely, 
to  trust  our  feedings  and  to  discipline 
them  by  a  sharper  coordination  with  rea- 
son. This  latter  process  we  call  "proof." 
Proof  consists  in  determining  whether 
things  stand  together  in  those  relations 
which  we  have  observed  to  be  uniform. 
The  uniform  relation  in  which  things 
stand  together,  we  call  "  rational."  Things 
thus  standing  together  constitute  rational 
unities;  if  an  object  of  perception  stands 
together  with  other  objects  in  such  a 
rational  unity,  our  sensibility  is  corrobo- 
rated, or,  in  other  words,  the  fact  is  proved; 
but  if  we  should  see  the  form  of  a  friend 
poised  in  mid  air,  without  any  support,  we 
should  judge  it  an  irrational  vision,  be- 
cause it  did  not  stand  together  with  the 
other  facts  of  nature  in  that  uniform  rela- 
tion which  we  have  observed.  It  is  just 
at   this   point,  however,   that   we   find  the 


EVIDENCE.  l6l 

limitation  of  reason.  Confined  strictly  to 
the  department  of  relations,  it  is  unerring; 
but  it  is  always  dependent  on  the  sensi- 
bility for  its  facts,  and  facts  are  essential 
to  our  knowledge  of  uniformity.  It  is  im- 
possible, for  instance,  to  know  absolutely 
all  the  relations  in  which  material  objects 
may  stand  to  one  another,  until  we  have 
actually  observed  by  the  sensibility  all  the 
facts  and  forces  that  govern  matter. 

A  few  centuries  ago  nothing  could  have 
been  plainer  than  that  iron  must  invariably 
sink  in  water.  If  iron  was  seen  to  float,  it 
was  fair  to  regard  it  as  an  irrational  vision. 
But  a  laro^er  use  of  sis^ht  and  touch  has 
shown  us  that  enormous  masses  of  iron 
can  float ;  so  that  by  gradual  experience 
we  have  discerned  a  wider  relation  and  a 
new  law  of  specific  gravity.  Indeed,  the 
progress  of  reason  is  always  inevitably 
limited  by  the  development  of  the  sen- 
sibility. Its  most  assured  verdicts  must 
always  be  based  on  some  previous  devel- 
opment of  the  sensibility.  This  is  par- 
ticularly noticeable  in  what  is  called  legal 
evidence  ;  here  w^e  have  what  many  regard 
as  a   purely  logical  chain   of  proof.     No- 


1 62  EVIDENCE. 

thing,  however,  can  be  farther  from  the 
fact ;  ahnost  every  link  of  reason  is  joined 
to  a  Hnk  of  sensibihty.  Each  witness  tes- 
tifies what  he  has  seen,  or,  in  other  words, 
what  his  feeHngs  have  tested ;  the  value  of 
his  perception  depends  in  a  large  degree 
upon  the  fine  development  of  his  sensi- 
bility, and  the  credibility  of  every  witness 
is  dependent  on  his  being  known  by  per- 
sonal acquaintances  to  be  a  man  of  truth, 
while  this  personal  acquaintanceship,  which 
is  the  ultimate  foundation  of  all  legal  evi- 
dence, is  more  than  anything  else  a  mat- 
ter of  intuitive  perception.  There  is  no 
greater  mistake  than  to  suppose  that  legal 
evidence  is  the  highest  order  of  proof ;  it 
is  really  an  inferior  kind.  Not  infrequently 
in  the  case  of  a  criminal  trial,  there  is  a 
person  who  knows  beyond  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt  the  guilt  or  innocence  of 
an  accused  party.  There  are  in  certain 
men  qualities  of  character  that  preclude 
the  commission  of  certain  crimes.  Such 
crimes  for  such  men  would  be  a  logical 
impossibility;  they  do  not  stand  together 
in  a  unity  with  that  kind  of  character. 
Reason  is  just  as  positive  in  its  verdict  on 


EVIDENCE.  163 

this  point  as  it  is  on  the  question  whether 
a  normal  human  stomach  could  have  a 
craving  for  filth.  This  is  what  we  call 
internal  evidence.  Reason  shows  us  the 
relation  in  which  spiritual  facts  stand  to- 
gether; it  discloses  to  us  moral  and  spirit- 
ual unities,  and  this  kind  of  evidence  is,  to 
those  who  possess  it,  the  most  convincing 
of  all,  for  it  is  just  as  logical  as  any  kind 
of  evidence  can  be.  The  part  that  reason 
plays  in  it  is  quite  as  unimpeachable,  and 
the  discernment  of  spiritual  facts  them- 
selves is  accomplished  through  the  con- 
science, wdiich  is,  when  properly  trained, 
the  most  trustworthy  sensibility  we  pos- 
sess. 

Most  of  us  have  a  friend,  whose  name 
is  sacred  to  us,  because  with  our  highest 
feelino^s  we  discern  in  him  the  noblest 
qualities.  If  such  a  man  should  be  con- 
victed by  overwhelming  evidence  of  de- 
grading crime,  w^e  should  still  have  a  per- 
fectly rational  faith  in  his  innocence,  on 
the  basis  of  this  internal  evidence.  We 
should  say,  logically  enough,  that  it  re- 
quired stronger  evidence  than  a  court  of 
law  could  produce  to  overcome  the  inter- 


1 64  EVIDENCE. 

nal  evidence  which  we  possessed ;  yet  this 
would  be  comparatively  unavailing  in  a 
judicial  trial,  because  of  its  being  based 
on  our  own  insight.  This  is  a  thing  that 
is  not  transferable.  It  is  from  lack  of  this 
untransferable  element  that  legal  evidence 
is  notoriously  imperfect,  and,  therefore,  hu- 
man justice  is  so  often  lame  in  its  conclu- 
sions. Even  a  perfectly  honest  man  would 
dread  the  chances  of  a  trial  for  murder,  so 
easy  is  it  to  manufacture  false  evidence, 
and  so  difficult  to  bring  to  bear  the  only 
kind  of  evidence  that  can  establish  certi- 
tude, namely,  internal  evidence.  Really, 
the  value  of  legal  evidence  does  not  lie  in 
its  superior  certainty,  but  in  the  fact  that, 
like  filthy  lucre,  it  passes  with  everybody, 
and  is  therefore  the  only  common  stand- 
ard between  man  and  man.  The  criterion 
for  judgment  between  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men,  most  of  them  in  a  rudi- 
mentary state  of  development,  must  be 
something  that  can  be  appreciated  by  the 
lowest.  It  must,  therefore,  necessarily  be 
winnowed  from  untransferable  elements, 
even  though  they  would  give  the  highest 
degree  of  conviction.     Thus  the  elements 


EVIDENCE.  165 

rejected  by  legal  evidence  are  often  the 
strongest  of  all ;  they  are  untransferable, 
and  can  be  possessed  only  by  the  develop- 
ment of  perception. 

Moreover,  Jesus  came  for  the  express 
purpose  of  putting  these  verities  within 
the  reach  of  man.  It  was,  therefore, 
strictly  logical  in  him  not  to  adapt  his 
presentation  of  truth  to  the  legal  method, 
or  to  the  scientific,  which  is  based  on  the 
same  principle,  but  to  elicit  the  higher 
perception.  For  this  reason,  too,  the  su- 
preme evidence  of  Christianity  must  al- 
w^ays  be  internal,  and,  in  justice  to  Christ, 
it  is  at  this  point  that  the  discussion  of 
Christian  evidence  should  begin.  It  is 
unjust  and  unreasonable  to  start  the  dis- 
cussion with  the  inquiry.  Who  wTote  these 
Gospels  ?  in  what  age }  were  they  eye- 
witnesses }  All  this  has  its  place,  but  it 
is  the  little  end  of  the  question.  If,  in 
the  process  of  centuries,  we  could  solve 
those  points  satisfactorily  there  would 
still  remain  the  fundamental  question,  Do 
these  Gospels  present  a  divine  character.'^ 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  is  what  they  do 
present.     Thousands  of  human  souls  have 


1 66  EVIDENCE. 

been  so  touched  by  these  Gospels,  particu- 
larly that  of  St.  John,  that  the  conscience 
has  been  brought  into  a  marvelous  and 
joyful  vitality.  The  spiritual  affections 
have  been  evolved  from  it,  and  the  spirit- 
ualized soul,  looking  upon  the  New  Testa- 
ment, has  then  seen  in  Jesus  Christ  a  life 
so  majestic,  so  infinitely  differentiated  from 
all  other  lives,  that  it  has  been  compelled 
to  cry  out,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God  !  "  Not 
only  that,  but  seeing  clearly  that  these  ac- 
counts of  the  sayings  and  doings  of  Jesus, 
miracles  included,  stand  together  in  a  per- 
fect rational  unity,  constituting  one  spir- 
itual character,  perceiving  also  that  this 
character  stands  together  with  the  neces- 
sities of  the  human  heart  and  the  noblest 
type  of  life,  that  same  soul  has  been  driven 
logically  to  say,  "  Reason  compels  me  to 
believe  this  story,  miracles  included,  on 
the  internal  •  evidence.  If  the  miracles 
are  differentiated  from  the  ordinary  hu- 
man experience,  the  life  of  Jesus  is  still 
more  so.  There  is  no  other  life  like  this, 
either  in  its  facts  or  in  its  spiritual  effects. 
It  is  the  embodiment  of  the  divine  law. 
It  is  a  supernatural  organ,  for  it  coordi- 


EVIDENCE.  167 

nates  my  soul  with  God ;  the  life  and  the 
miracles  stand  together.  On  internal  evi- 
dence so  overwhelming,  based  on  such  a 
harmonious  and  transcendent  experience 
of  life,  I  must  in  reason  believe  the  Gos- 
pels, unless  some  overvveighing  internal 
evidence  can  be  brought  against  them." 
This  argument  that  a  miracle  is  opposed 
to  natural  law  is  trifling.  How  does  any 
one  know  what  a  natural  law  is  ?  How 
can  any  man  tell  what  are  the  ultimate 
relations  of  matter  and  spirit?  Is  it  pos- 
sible to  make  an  induction  that  shall  be 
exhaustive,  till  we  have  experienced  all  the 
facts  of  heaven  and  earth?  The  law  may 
be,  for  aught  I  know,  that  matter  and 
spirit  are  interpenetrable.  Am  I  to  take  a 
kind  of  external  evidence  that  has  neither 
sure  foundation  nor  clear  philosophy  un- 
derlying it,  and  accept  it  against  an  inter- 
nal evidence,  perfectly  logical  throughout, 
presented  to  me  by  this  joyful  spiritual 
perception  to  which  the  Gospels  have 
brought  me  ?  A  belief  like  this,  founded 
on  evidence  in  which  the  sense  of  rela- 
tions is  perfectly  clear,  and  harmonizing 
with  the  development  of  life,  surely,  such 


1 68  EVIDENCE. 

a  belief  should  be  called  neither  irrational 
nor  ultra-rational.  It  is  sane  ;  it  agrees 
with  the  logic  of  nature,  with  the  law  of 
social  evolution,  and  there  is  just  as  large 
a  preponderance  of  reason  in  it  as  there 
is  in  any  belief  that  man  exercises. 

It  is  the  weakness  of  most  modern  at- 
tacks on  the  Scripture  and  also  of  the 
"  higher  criticism,"  that  it  is  too  often  ab- 
solutely destitute  of  this  sense  of  spiritual 
values.  Unable  itself  to  perceive  anything 
in  the  Scriptures  to  excite  peculiar  rever- 
ence, it  cannot  understand  why  others 
should  have  such  a  feeling.  It  is  almost 
as  imperceptive  as  were  the  Roman  sol- 
diers when  they  made  sport  of  Jesus,  nor 
can  it  perceive  why  such  an  action  can 
pain  any  one.  Oblivious  of  the  whole 
realm  of  internal  evidence,  it  has  the  ut- 
most contempt  for  the  reason  of  those 
who  discern  this  side,  and  thus  it  comes 
to  pass  that  there  is  a  long-drawn-out  and 
hopeless  contest  between  two  classes  of 
people  who  have  no  common  ground. 
The  fact  remains  that  in  a  very  large 
class  of  minds  the  gospel  still  continues 
to  elicit  this  sense  of  values,  precisely  as 


EVIDENCE.  169 

Mendelssohn,  or  Beethoven,  or  Raphael 
elicits  the  sense  of  aesthetic  values.  For 
a  person  who  has  no  sense  of  musical 
value  to  accuse  an  enthusiastic  musician 
of  unreason  or  disingenuousness  is  obvi- 
ously absurd.  Is  it  not  equally  so  for  a 
man  with  no  sense  of  spiritual  values  to 
accuse  him  who  has  them  of  beinof  un- 
able  to  comprehend  the  laws  of  evidence  ? 
After  all,  the  fundamental  criterion  in  all 
such  cases  is  the  sensibility.  Divinity, 
like  beauty  or  majesty,  is  a  quality,  and 
must  be  discerned  by  the  feelings. 


CHAPTER   XL 

THE    LAW    OF    THE    WORD. 

The  clearest  form  of  personal  radiation 
is  speech,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  all  ex- 
pressive action  is  a  kind  of  language. 
Jesus  included  his  deeds  with  his  utter- 
ances in  what  he  called  "  the  gospel."  In 
the  parable  of  the  sower  he  grouped  them 
together  under  the  head  of  a  single  vital 
force,  which  he  called  "  the  word  of  the 
kingdom." 

The  very  choice  of  this  term  indicates 
the  correspondence  of  God's  revelation  to 
man's.  The  law  of  man's  word  is  the  law 
of  the  divine  word  also.  What  is  that 
law.?  What  is  the  starting-point  of  reve- 
lation in  man  ?  Obviously  it  is  a  man's 
innermost  self ;  here  it  is  that  he  finds  the 
subject-matter  for  revelation;  here,  too, 
originates  the  revealing  purpose.  This  in- 
nermost self  is  also  the  highest  in  a  man, 
the  latest  stage  in  his  development;  it  is 


THE  LAW  OF  THE    WORD.  I /I 

in  fact  what  we  have  elsewhere  called  "  the 
spirit."     As  will  be  remembered,  the  word 
primarily  signifies  "  a  breath,"  and,  indeed, 
the  breath  of  heaven  that  vitalizes  a  man 
and  inspires  him  is  a  good  symbol  of  this 
highest  and  innermost  self,  invisible,  subtle, 
yet  charged  with  mightiest  forces.     It  be- 
longs   to    the    supernatural.      Its    field    of 
activity  is  the   invisible;  its  general  char- 
acteristic is  a  power  to  discern  and  set  be- 
fore  itself  a  final   end;   it  thus   elects   its 
own  supreme  good  and  shapes  its  life  with 
reference  to  it.     A  life  thus  shaped,  with 
definite  reference  to  a  final  end,  constitutes 
what  we  call  "  character."    In  fact,  the  spirit 
is   the  character  forming  part  of   us,  and 
possesses  all  the  faculties  essential  to  this 
process  :  as,  for  instance,  the  conscience,  by 
which    the    scale   of  valuation   is  formed; 
the  moral  affections,  by  which  one  enjoys 
the  supreme  blessedness ;  imagination,  by 
which  to  construct  an  ideal ;  and  moral  sym- 
pathy, or  power  to  understand  that  life  to 
which  it  is  akin.    These  are  all  essential  to 
the  complete  formation  of  the  spirit,  but 
many  of  them  are  not  present  in  the  pri- 
mal stages  of  spiritual  development,  and, 


1/2  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

indeed,  some  of  them  never  appear  at  all, 
for  the  spirit  is  really  the  developed  char- 
acter; its  powers  are  essentially  moral, 
their  complete  development  depends  on 
the  question  whether  the  will  operates  in 
accordance  with  spiritual  law.  In  other 
words,  the  spirit  is  self-developing.  It  may 
elect  the  natural  end  of  spiritual  life,  and 
so  under  God's  creative  environment  reach 
a  complete  stage  of  spiritual  existence,  the 
entrance  into  which  will  be,  as  Jesus  called 
it,  a  new  birth  ;  or  it  may  elect  a  simulation 
of  the  highest  good  (such  a  likeness  of  it, 
for  instance,  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  ma- 
terial world,  the  outward  image  without 
the  reality).  By  thus  choosing  a  false  and 
unspiritual  end  of  life,  it  will  develop  into 
an  abortive  spirit,  never  attaining  to  the 
new  birth  or  goal  of  its  evolution. 

A  wicked  spirit  is  one  that  has  thus  de- 
parted from  the  natural  pathway  of  spir- 
itual development.  It  may  be  powerful, 
but  it  is  an  abortion.  On  the  other  hand, 
an  undeveloped  spirit,  that  has  not  yet 
passed  through  what  Jesus  called  the  new 
birth,  is  in  an  embryonic  stage.  Too  often 
the    embryo    is    astray  from    the    path  of 


THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD.  1 73 

development,  and  has  degenerated  from  its 
normal  type.  (This  is,  in  fact,  the  case 
generahy  with  regard  to  the  human  spirit. 
This  condition  Jesus  undertook  to  reheve ; 
through  him,  through  the  environment 
of  his  kingdom,  and  through  the  Pente- 
costal radiation  of  his  spirit,  his  disciples 
advanced  beyond  the  degenerated  and 
embryonic  condition.)  But  this  much  is 
always  true  of  the  spirit,  even  when  it  is 
abnormal  and  astray  :  it  is  the  transcend- 
ent self,  it  gives  us  a  supersensuous  field 
of  activity  and  enjoyment,  so  that  a  manr 
may,  like  Epictetus,  retire  into  it  and  say 
to  his  slave-master,  "  You  cannot  hurt  me, 
I  am  beyond  your  reach."  This  transcend- 
ent and  spiritual  self  is,  in  fact,  the  citadel 
of  the  Stoics,  it  is  the  city  of  refuge  to 
which  the  ascetic  flies ;  he  dares  not  leave 
his  vitalities  outside  of  it,  but  drives  them 
within  its  gates,  or  slays  them  without  its 
walls. 

In  the  great  revelators  this  transcendent 
nature  has  always  been  powerfully  devel- 
oped. They  have  thus  stood  head  and 
shoulders  above  the  clouds,  have  explored 
the  realm    of    ideals  and   higher  relation- 


174  '^^^fl''^    LAW   ()/''    ///A"    WON  I). 

sliij)s,  and  thus  liavc  liad  sonicwliat  to  tell 
us  of  that  realm  to  which  vvc  arc  akin. 
But  in  Jesus  alone  do  we  discern  the  ])er- 
fect  spiritual  nature  ;  in  him  we  sec  the 
spirit  with  its  crowning,  ci-eativc  jKJwers,  a 
perfect  organ  ol  divinity,  ahle  to  discern 
the  divine  sj)irit,  face  to  face,  even  as  all 
life  feels  the  life  to  which  it  is  akin.'  Now, 
as  has  been  said,  the  spirit  is  the  source  of 
revelation,  for  it  is  in  that  centre  of  per- 
sonal consciousness  that  revelation  begins. 
Froni  that  |X)int  the  light  of  life  is  radiated. 
To  that  highest  type  of  life  all  matter  cor- 
responds. Yet,  at  hrst  sight,  no  two  exist- 
ences appear  wider  apart  tiian  s])irit  and 
matter.  Indeed,  to  a  vast  number  of  think- 
ers, they  have  appeared  not  only  foreign 
but  absolutely  hostile  to  one  another;  yet 
in  the  human  life  they  are  united,  so  that 
they  can  be  thrilled  by  a  common  grief  or 
joy.  What  then  is  the  "eirenicon,"  the 
coordinating  force  that  bridges  the  chasm 
between  the  two?  i>et  us  take  a  case. 
Demosthenes  is  thinking,  at  Athens  ;  his 

'  Cor.  XV.  45:  The  first  ni:in  Adam  dcvcloijcd  into  a 
livinj^  soul,  the  hist  Achim  into  a  lifc-^ivin<j^  spirit.  ((Ircck 
Test.)  'E76V6T0  6is  can  he  rendered  into  good  Juighsh  only 
by  the  phrase  "developed  into." 


THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD.  1/5 

spirit  is  roused  to  excitement;  it  is,  how- 
ever, a  purely  spiritual  force.     But  lo  !  he 
speaks,  and  the  next  moment  the  spiritual 
force    is    transmuted    into   a  physical.      It 
becomes    a    thunderous    wave    of    sound, 
charged  with    spiritual    electricity,  its    ca- 
dences   vibrating    with    spiritual    impulse. 
Speech,  then,  is  the  conversion  of  spiritual 
into  physical  force ;  a  word  is  a  material- 
ized thought.    This  is  the  miracle  continu- 
ally wrought  by  life.     It  is  not  confined  to 
the  tongue.     Every  gesture,  every  play  of 
the  feature,  every  act  is  speech,  —  anima- 
tion itself  is  the  materialization  of  the  in- 
tangible life.     In  short,  this  transmutation 
of  the  immaterial  into  the  material  is  not 
accomplished  by  a  single  organ,  but  by  the 
life  which  animates  every  organ  ;  nay,  an 
organ  is  a  complex  thing.     It  is  life  and 
matter  conjoined;  the  life  holding  the  mat- 
ter together,  resisting  its  natural  tendencies, 
and  organizing  it  for  vital  purposes. 

But  the  life  that  thus  constructs,  vital- 
izes, and  utilizes  the  organisms  of  the  body 
is  radically  different  in  kind  from  the  spirit. 
It  is  not  only  a  lower  centre  of  vitality, 
but  an  altogether  variant  form  of  personal 


176  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

consciousness  and  activity.  It  is  so  closely 
associated  with  matter  that  it  is  impossible 
to  draw  the  line  between  the  two.  In  fact, 
it  is  itself  a  kind  of  physical  force.  Dia- 
metrically opposite  to  the  spirit  is  its  field 
of  activity.  The  home  of  the  spirit  is  the 
immaterial  realm  ;  the  home  of  this  organic 
vitality  is,  primarily,  in  the  physical  uni- 
verse. It  really  is  our  immanent  self,  for 
it  dwells  in  matter ;  at  the  outset  its  pleas- 
ures and  pains  are  those  derived  from  the 
material  world.  To  that  world  it  is  ex- 
quisitely sensitive.  It  tests  the  qualities 
of  the  material  realm  ;  its  sensibilities  are 
emotional,  they  are  centred  in  the  organ- 
isms, and  are  inseparable  from  the  agita- 
tions of  the  nerve  ganglia.  Its  will  is 
dynamic,  acting  directly  on  the  muscles 
through  the  nervous  system,  and  so  pro- 
ducing mechanical  force.  It  appears,  then, 
that  the  human  personality  unites  in  itself, 
under  one  consciousness,  two  distinct  cen- 
tres or  foci  of  personal  life  and  sensibility. 
I  say  "  personal,"  because  concerning  each 
of  them  a  man  may  use  the  word  "  I." 
When  the  Stoic  has  withdrawn  himself 
by  the  abstracting  power  of  will  into  his 


THE  LAW  OF  THE    WORD.  177 

own  spirit,  he  may,  like  Epictetus,  say  to 
his  tormentor,  "  I  am  beyond  your  reach." 
If  he  does  not  thus    abstract    himself,  he 
is  sometimes  obliged  to  cry  out  piteously 
to  his  tormentor,  "You  are  hurting  me." 
Sometimes    the    natural    antagonism    be- 
tween these  two  centres  of  consciousness 
assumes  the  form  of  a  savage  battle,  —  the 
flesh  against  the  spirit,  the  spirit  against 
the    flesh ;    and    the    consciousness    of    a 
double  personality  becomes  painfully  real- 
istic.    It    is    the   lower    centre    of   vitality 
which  is  the  first  to  be  developed.     It  is, 
in  fact,  identical  with  the  Psyche  — Anima, 
or  Soul.     The  man   in  whom  this  centre 
of  vitality   predominates   is    called,  by  St. 
Paul,  the  psychical  or  animal  man,^  even 
though    he   may  possess    strong   intellect- 
ual and  spiritual   elements.     Indeed,   this 
centre  of  consciousness  is  fairly  identified 
in  the  Scripture  also,  with  the  Psyche,  or 
Soul ;    but    it    is    preeminently   the   word- 
self,   or  logos,  for   by   it   the  spirit   is   ex- 
pressed.    It   is   this   revealing  self  whose 

1  I  Cor.  ii.  14:  The  psychical  man  receives  not  the 
things  of  the  spirit  of  God,  for  they  are  foolishness  to 
him,  and  he  cannot  know  them  because  they  demand 
spiritual  judgment. 


178  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

development  marks  what  we  call  the  ar- 
tistic temperament.  True,  the  creative 
power  of  the  artist  comes  from  the  ideal 
and  spiritual  realm,  but  that  subtlety  and 
precision  of  touch,  together  with  the  ex- 
quisite fineness  of  sensuous  perception 
that  characterizes  the  best  artistic  work, 
come  from  an  exceedingly  sensitive  animal 
oro^anization.  The  artist  is  seldom  a  Stoic; 
he  cannot  say  to  the  harassing,  tempting 
world,  "  I  am  beyond  your  reach."  To 
him  it  is  given  rather  to  interpret  the 
tragedies  of  life,  for  the  Psyche  is  not  only 
the  revealing  but  the  sympathetic  or  re- 
ceptive self.  It  is  the  avenue  through 
which  we  know  outside  facts  and  other 
lives.  It  is,  therefore,  in  a  peculiar  sense 
the  organ  of  humanity,  for  though  nothing 
can  be  more  heartless  than  this  animal 
personality  when  it  is  taken  up  with  itself, 
yet  if  it  be  employed  as  an  organ  of  the 
spiritual  love  it  becomes  a  wondrous  me- 
dium of  sympathetic  force. 

To  take  an  instance :  Jesus  is  being 
nailed  to  the  cross  by  the  brutal  soldiery. 
As  they  drive  the  nails  through  his  hands 
the  immanent  life  is  thrilled  with  pain,  but 


THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD.  179 

this  same  immanent  life  had  been  trained 
by  him,  not  after  the  fashion  of  the  Stoics 
to  retire  within  the  spirit,  but  to  become 
the  absorbed  organ  of  a  spiritual  affection ; 
it  was  therefore  instinct  with  fatherhood;  it 
had  become  more  sensitive  to  the  pains  of 
others  than  to  its  own ;  it  conveyed  to  him 
therefore,  with  vivid   touches,  the  sunken 
condition  of  the  soldiery,  and  from  his  in- 
nermost spirit  there  came  the  cry,  "  Father, 
forgive  them."     It  was  surely  a  feeble  phys- 
ical force  into  which  the  spirit  of  Jesus  was 
transmuted ;  the  cry  of  an  agonized  man, 
rising  half  distinguished  in  the  roar  of  the 
mob,  but  through  that  feeble  materializa- 
tion there  radiated  another  kind  of  force 
that  we  call  "  spiritual  influence."    Among 
the  energies  of  the  world  it  appears  weak, 
but  it  is  in  reality  supreme.     Slowly  but 
surely    everything    gives    way    before    it. 
What  is  it?     All  we  know  is,  that  it   is 
the  radiated  spiritual  life.     It  is  undoubt- 
edly an  emanation,  it  has  the  higher  ele- 
ments of  the  spirit,  but  it  carries  also  with 
it  the  passional  vehemence  and  the  sym- 
pathetic touch  of  the  psychic  personality. 
The   most  ethereal  and  the  most  human 


l8o  THE  LAW   OF   THE    WORD. 

elements  of  Christ's  nature  were  united  in 
that  cry;  they  hover  about  those  words 
spoken  from  the  cross,  an  eternal  magnetic 
projection  of  the  man's  life.  Not  inappro- 
priately, therefore,  we  often  call  a  man's  in- 
fluence his  "spirit," for  his  very  personahty 
is  somehow  present  in  it,  —  it  is  a  projec- 
tion of  himself.  Jesus  called  it  sometimes 
"  light,"  sometimes  "  living  water  ;  "  but 
more  specifically  he  styled  it  "  the  Spirit " 
and  the  "  Holy  Spirit."  This,  however,  was 
particularly  when  he  wished  to  make  clear 
the  divinity  of  the  influence,  which  was 
none  the  less  his,  because  he  traced  it 
back  to  God.  This  spirit  that  emanated 
from  Christ  appeared  in  its  after  operation 
to  be  detached  from  him,  but  in  the  case 
of  God  it  surely  cannot  be  detached  from 
Him,  for  He  is  omnipresent.  The  Spirit 
of  God,  or  Holy  Spirit,  must  therefore  be 
a  third  centre  of  divine  personal  conscious- 
ness, the  life  of  God  radiated,  yet  not  de- 
tached. 

The  radiated  human  personality  always 
convero^es  or  focuses  itself  about  the  man's 
embodiment.  As  that  embodiment  passes 
into    history,    and    as    the    man's    various 


THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD.  i8l 

deeds  and  works  are  grouped  together  so 

as  to  form  one  concept  with  the  name  of 

the   man    himself,  then    the    radiated    life 

naturally  focuses    itself   about   the   name; 

it  becomes  the  power  of  the  name.     As  it 

touches  men's  hearts  they  rally  round  it, 

identify  themselves  with  it,  are  penetrated 

by   it,  and   it    thus    becomes    a   corporate 

power,    organizing    men    into    one    body. 

Bein^  detached  from  local  and  temporary 

•   •  •       1 
circumstances  it  takes  on  a  flexibility  that 

a  man's  formal  life  cannot  possess  ;  the 
formal  literal  life  of  a  man  cannot  be  fol- 
lowed in  a  different  age  and  under  vary- 
ing circumstances.  To  attempt  it  would 
be  absurd,  but  one  may  follow  the  spirit  of 
a  hero,  though  all  one's  circumstances  be 
different  from  his. 

The  principles  on  which  he  acted  have 
still  their  application,  though  a  thousand 
years  have  passed.  His  lofty  devotion  has 
still  its  impelling  force;  his  unflinching 
purpose  retains  its  moving  energy.  Thus 
the  spirit  of  a  departed  hero  becomes  an 
eternal  power  to  lay  hold  of  and  stir  the 
souls  of  men ;  our  hope  is  in  yielding  to 
such  impulses,  not  rashly  but  thoughtfully; 


1 82  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

working  out  their  application,  and  thus 
permitting  them  to  carry  us  to  a  rational 
and  practical  goal.  It  may  be  said,  in  gen- 
eral, that  the  higher  impulses  to  life  come 
from  spiritual  sources.  They  are  impulses 
given  by  radiated  lives ;  their  force  is  as 
invisible  as  the  ether,  and  as  incalculable. 
Now,  the  success  of  any  great  revelator 
must  depend  on  his  power  to  generate 
this  kind  of  post-mortem  vitality,  and  the 
power  to  generate  it  depends  not  only  on 
the  magnitude  of  both  spirit  and  Psyche, 
but  on  the  strict  subordination  of  the 
Psyche  to  the  spirit.  True,  one  may  not 
think  this  out  in  philosophic  terms,  but  he 
cannot  fail  to  distinguish  in  some  loose 
and  general  way  the  function  of  the  psy- 
chic nature,  and  its  relation  both  to  his 
higher  self  and  to  his  influence.  This  is, 
in  fact,  the  so-called  law  of  sacrifice,  which 
Jesus  illustrated  in  so  many  ways.  It  is 
the  bearing  of  the  cross,  the  losing  of  the 
life.  Indeed,  a  powerful  personality,  setting 
itself  to  the  highest  spiritual  ends,  cannot 
escape  these  facts.  The  violent  struggle 
between  these  two  different  centres  of 
vitality  must  disclose  their  existence  and 
relationship. 


THE   LAW  OF   THE    WORD.  1 83 

In  Jesus,  it  is  evident  that  the  psychic 
element  was  mightily  developed,  and  pas- 
sional, though  pure.  The  struggle  by 
which  he  obtained  the  mastery  and  sub- 
dued the  flesh  to  his  high  purpose  was 
awful.  The  disciples  who  witnessed  it 
were  appalled.  They  tell  us  that  his  sweat 
was,  as  it  were,  drops  of  blood.  He,  above 
all  men,  sought  to  leave  behind  him,  for  the 
help  of  humanity,  a  name  and  the  power 
of  a  name.  He  knew  that  his  earthly  ex- 
istence must  end  in  obloquy ;  it  was  the 
necessary  result  of  that  great  revelatory 
law  to  which  he  adhered  so  unflinchingly ; 
therefore  his  hopes  were  wholly  posthu- 
mous. It  was  this  projected  personality 
through  which  he  expected  to  save  man- 
kind. It  was  the  Father's  spirit,  radiated 
throuQ-h  his  death  even  more  than  throuo^h 
his  life,  which  would  organize  men  into  a 
new  kingdom.  This  was  his  legacy,  the 
Testament  in  his  blood,  w^hich  he  trusted 
the  Father  would  take  care  of  as  the  prop- 
erty of  the  race,  and  utilize  as  a  factor  in 
his  divine  government,  —  nay,  rather  as  the 
central  orgaiiism  of  that  government,  "  the 
sceptre  of  David."     Now  it  was  impossible 


1 84  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

that  SO  great  a  soul,  so  clear  a  mind,  should 
not  have  searched  to  the  very  depth  of 
those  relationships  on  which  the  law  of 
revelation  depends,  for  it  was  his  maxim 
to  count  all  the  costs.  Spiritually  his  con- 
sciousness brought  him  face  to  face  with 
God.  In  that  clear  vision  all  spiritual 
principles  must  have  stood  forth. 

We  must  remember  that  Jesus  was 
severely  critical,  penetrating  and  sifting  the 
religious  ideas  of  his  age,  rejecting  vehe- 
mently some  of  those  most  firmly  estab- 
lished, accepting  others  where  one  would 
least  have  expected  it.  He  was  also  power- 
fully constructive,  building  upon  ultimate 
causation,  bringing  disclosures  out  of  the 
heart  of  nature  and  of  God.  From  boyhood, 
too,  he  had  been  characterized  by  his  in- 
tense application  to  the  original  Scriptures. 
What,  then,  did  nature  and  the  Scriptures 
report  to  him  ?  Evidently  this  fundamental 
truth,  that  man  was  the  image  of  God. 
In  fact,  man's  correspondence  to  God  was, 
as  has  been  seen,  the  basis  of  his  moral 
system.  But  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gene- 
sis, which  bears  every  appearance  of  being 
a  vision,   spiritual   processes    being   there 


THE  LAW  OF  THE    WORD.  1 85 

described  under  visual  terms,  he  read  the 
story  of  what  we  call  spontaneous  genera- 
tion ;  how  God  said,  "  Let  the  earth  bring 
forth,  and  it  brought  forth."  This  is  human 
terminology  ;  it  carries  the  correspondence 
between  God  and  man  into  the  field  of 
creation.  We  know  what  man's  speech  is. 
It  is  a  miracle,  a  creative  power,  transmut- 
ing spiritual  into  material  force.  What, 
then,  is  the  creative  speech  of  God  that 
coordinated  his  transcendent  spirit  with 
the  forces  of  material  development }  What 
was  this  word  of  God  that  not  only  created 
or  developed  and  animated,  but  revealed } 
What  was  this  spirit  of  God  that  moved 
upon  the  face  of  the  waters  1  Why  should 
such  language  be  used,  if  not  to  show  that 
the  operation  of  God's  word  and  spirit  cor- 
responded to  that  of  man's .^  Such  surely 
would  be  the  inquiry  of  so  vast  and  origi- 
nal and  naturalistic  a  mind. 

Furthermore,  the  Old  Testament  was 
flooded  with  this  idea.  It  was  this  word 
of  the  Lord  that  caused  nature  to  put 
forth  her  powers  continually;  it  upheld 
the  heavens  ;  it  caused  the  hinds  to  calve ; 
it  came  to  a  man  at  the  sound  of  a  harp,  — 


1 86  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

threw  him  into  trances  and  ecstasies.  It 
wrought  strange  powers  that  exhibited  its 
indwelling  capacity  and  unison  with  mat- 
ter. This  it  was  that  thrilled  the  armies 
of  Israel ;  that  strung  the  nerves  of  Sam- 
son, and  drew  forth  the  passional  worship 
of  David ;  that  broke  out  in  superhuman 
pathos  for  the  sufferings  of  Israel,  —  this 
divine  centre  of  superhuman  feeling ;  this 
throbbing  heart  of  God,  vibrating  with 
sympathy  for  the  sensuous  world,  pitiful 
toward  the  orphan  and  the  widow,  caring 
even  for  the  dumb  beast  and  the  birds  of 
the  air,  and  hearing  the  young  ravens  when 
they  cry.  How  manifest  it  is  in  the  Old 
Testament,  —  this  psychic  disclosure  of 
God;  this  divine  nature,  clearly  not  the 
highest,  not  the  transcendent  spirit  by 
which  he  inhabited  eternity,  but  that 
which  said,  "When  thou  walkest  through 
the  waters  I  will  be  with  thee,  and  when 
thou  passest  through  the  fire  thou  shalt 
not  be  burned ;  "  this  immanent  life  of 
God.  It  had,  indeed,  disappeared  from 
theology  before  the  time  of  Jesus. 

To  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  God  had 
become  the  transcendent  one,  the  absentee 


THE  LAW  OF  THE    WORD.  187 

Lord,  the  anti-natural  deity,  resident  far 
above  the  clouds ;  but,  with  the  coming  of 
Jesus,  God  became  once  more  immanent. 
Again  he  was  the  life  of  nature ;  again  his 
word  animated  and  controlled  it.  "  The 
living  Father  hath  life'' — meaning  phys- 
ical life  —  was  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  and 
to  it  nature  bore  solemn  witness  at  the 
grave  of  Lazarus.  "  He  dwelleth  in  me," 
said  Jesus.  "  He  hath  given  to  the  Son 
to  have  life  in  himself."  All  through  the 
pages  of  the  New  Testament  we  see  that 
Jesus  made  the  impression  upon  the  dis- 
ciples that  he  was  the  man  of  the  word,  and 
that  the  word  was  God's  almighty  physical 
force.  If  he  did  not  really  work  miracles, 
he  certainly  made  the  impression  of  doing 
so.  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke  carry  us 
into  an  exceptional  realm  of  experience ;  so 
exceptional  is  it  that  it  is  argued  to  be 
false.  But  what  if  Jesus  was,  as  his  very 
claim  and  intellectual  position  implied,  a 
complete  organ  of  The  Word ;  what  if 
God's  word  be,  like  man's  word,  psychic, — 
then  the  whole  meaning  of  things  becomes 
clear.  Well  might  God  disclose  himself 
in  Galilee  as  never  before  or  since,  because 


1 88  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

in  Galilee  developed  the  preeminent  man 
of  the  word,  whose  soul  rested  upon  God's 
soul,  whose  exceptional  physical  life  was 
given  up  to  the  radiation  of  God's  spirit 
and  to  the  humanization  of  God's  name. 

Organs  always  cause  stupendous  excep- 
tions in  nature ;  they  create  all  the  differ- 
ence between  the  desert  and  the  garden. 
When  a  new  organ  comes,  then  come  new 
manifestations  of  force,  and  they  are  con- 
fined to  the  radius  of  the  organ.  As  we 
read  the  gospels  we  are  awestruck  at  the 
decisive  manner  in  which  this  last  fact  ap- 
pears. Where  Christ,  the  organ,  was  re- 
ceived, there  loomed  up  the  supernatural 
glories  of  the  word.  Outside  that  radius 
there  lay  no  supernatural  help.  In  fact, 
Jesus  made  himself,  as  no  other  being  ever 
did,  both  the  interpreter  and  the  vehicle  of 
God's  physical  life ;  yet  all  this  disclosure 
of  God's  immanent  and  psychic  force  he 
sternly  subordinated  to  the  revelation  of 
God's  spirit.  It  is  the  Father's  spiritual 
traits  more  than  the  psychic  that  charac- 
terize Him.  God  has  a  soul,  but  He  is  a 
spirit,  even  as  He  has  wrath,  but  He  is 
love.      Those    only    know    a    person    who 


THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD.  1 89 

know  His  supreme  characteristic.  Those 
only  worship  God  who  find  Him  in  his 
transcendent  Ufe.  That  is  the  source  of 
his  Fatherhood;  thence  radiates  his  infi- 
nite spiritual  affection,  his  unselfish  pur- 
pose, his  divine  humility  (which  ever  hides 
his  power),  and  his  great  creative  ideal  for 
his  children.  Here,  too,  is  to  be  found 
the  key  to  all  his  acts.  "  God  is  a  spirit," 
said  Jesus,  "and  they  that  worship  Him 
must  worship  Him  in  spirit  and  in  truth." 
Only  the  genuine  adoration  that  comes 
from  spiritual  perception  is  worship,  in 
truth. 

It  is  impossible  truly  to  know,  or  wholly 
to  give  one's  self  up  to  Him,  till  a  man's  own 
spirit  is  sufficiently  developed  to  discern 
this  transcendent  Fatherhood.  But  even 
as  the  babe  in  its  mother's  arms  catches 
the  mother's  spirit  through  the  mother  life 
that  holds  and  cares  for  it,  so  must  men 
learn  to  feel  the  transcendent  love  of  God 
through  the  sympathizing  and  encircling 
soul  of  God ;  and  as  man's  spiritual  percep- 
tion can  only  be  developed  through  moral 
activity,  he  must  begin  by  following  the 
Holy  Spirit  or  radiated  life  of   God,  as  it 


1 90  THE  LAW  OF   THE    WORD. 

comes  through  some  great  embodiment  of 
Him,  and  as  it  is  focahzed  about  the  name 
of  God's  great  reproduction  of  Himself, — 
the  Son  of  the  Father.  This  had  been 
the  principle  of  spiritual  progress ;  it  had 
been  an  invisible  law,  working  more  and 
more  to  the  surface  in  the  history  of  Israel. 
The  failure  of  a  Jewish  leader  like  Nico- 
demus  to  recognize  it  as  a  plain  earthly 
experience  had  surprised  Jesus.  It  seemed 
difficult  for  him  to  teach  a  man  with  such 
dull  spiritual  perception,  regarding  those 
more  transcendent  spiritual  realities.  If 
he  did  not  feel  the  psychic  relationship, 
how^  could  he  feel  the  spiritual  ?  "  If  you 
believe  not  the  earthly  things  relating  to 
God,  how  can  you  believe  if  I  tell  you  of 
the  heavenly  things  1 " 

Naturally  it  was  a  great  concern  of  Jesus 
that  men  should  see  this  correspondence. 
This  alone  can  bring  God  near  to  us.  The 
proof  of  God's  existence,  united  to  the 
description  of  his  character,  may  indeed 
awaken  our  conscience  and  dominate  our 
conduct,  but  such  an  external  and  legal 
pressure  must  always  be  weak,  because  it 
does  not  appeal'  to  the  flesh  or  immanent 


THE  LAW  OF  THE    WORD.  19I 

life.  The  exuberant  passional  psychic 
vitality  will  remain  inwardly  and  fiercely  re- 
bellious. It  is  with  the  psychic  or  natural 
man  as  with  the  child.  The  child  frets  at 
the  father's  will,  because  it  cannot  see  the 
value  of  so  transcendent  a  good.  It  feels 
only  the  antagonism  of  the  father's  ideal 
to  its  own  animal  desires.  It  is  won  over 
to  an  obedient  trust  only  when  it  sees  the 
father's  will  thrown  into  the  stronor  lig-ht 
of  the  father's  psychic  affection ;  then  it 
feels  that  the  will  must  be  love :  so,  in  order 
to  reconcile  us  to  the  will  of  God,  Jesus 
sought  to  manifest  Him  in  the  flesh  or  im- 
manent life.  Thus  doing,  he  disclosed  to 
us  how  completely  God's  nature  touches 
ours  at  all  points.  As  in  the  parable  of  the 
Prodigal  Son,  he  threw  the  warm  sunshine 
of  God's  psychic  relationship  upon  his 
moral  relationship  to  us,  and  so  gave 
God's  spiritual  call  the  vibrant  passional 
note  of  God's  natural  fatherhood.  More- 
over, knowing  that  spiritual  truth  is  ap- 
prehended through  spiritual  development 
and  moral  activity,  he  sought  to  put  us  at 
once  on  the  track  of  possession  by  iden- 
tifying  every  potency  of  faith  with  those 


192  THE  LAW  OF  THE    WORD. 

divine  points  of  correspondence.     He  not 
only  directed  his  disciples  to  identify  men 
with  himself  personally  and  by  name,  but 
in    the    beautiful    symbol    of    purification 
called  baptism,  they  were  to  identify  men, 
also,  with  the  Father  and  with  the    Holy 
Ghost,  or  with   the   radiated  life  of  God, 
which  centres  about  the  name  of  the  Son. 
Baptism  is  a  symbol  both  of  purification 
and  of  identification,  and  if  this  baptism  of 
Jesus  be  followed  up  by  action  in  any  de- 
gree corresponding  to  the  symbol,  it  does 
unquestionably  result  in  a  baptismal  regen- 
eration, a  joyous  culminating  experience 
of  God's  transcendent  Fatherhood,  of  God's 
immanent  and  sympathetic  life,  and  of  his 
Holy  Spirit  recreating  our  own  souls,  and 
lifting  them  heavenward  by  mightiest  influ- 
ences.    Thus  we  see  that,  to  the  mind  of 
Jesus,  the  Revelation  of  God  was  the  pro- 
gressive matrix  of  the  soul,  or  life  in  its 
development   toward    moral    and    spiritual 
reciprocity  with  God.    Detached  from  that 
matrix,  there  could  be  to  the  soul  no  true 
moral  vitality. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

REVELATION. 

If  we  put  the  teachings  and  acts  of 
Jesus  together,  his  idea  of  a  revelation 
becomes  clear.  Any  material  fact  was  to 
him  a  revelation,  provided  it  was  coordi- 
nated with  spiritual  life,  for  it  then  became 
a  medium  for  radiating  and  suggesting  the 
spirit.  Thus,  the  little  child  whom  he  took 
in  his  arms,  and  the  bread  he  blessed,  be- 
came revelations. 

Indeed,  to  the  mind  of  Jesus  the  whole 
universe  was  constructed  on  a  revelatory 
principle  ;  its  development  was  a  revelation. 
"  There  is  nothing  hidden,"  he  taught, 
"that  shall  not  be  revealed."  The  sim- 
plest things  in  nature  corresponded  to  the 
^vord,  —  became  its  analogies,  types,  and 
prophecies.  So,  too,  the  smallest  things 
were  significant  of  God's  character.  All 
that  was  needed  was  spiritual  perception. 
He  himself  saw  God  s  tender  care  in  the 


194  REVELATION. 

clothino:  of  the  lilies  and  in  the  feedino: 
of  the  birds.  He  saw  God's  presence  and 
grace  in  those  atmospheric  coordinations 
that  bring  rain  and  sunshine  upon  the  evil 
and  the  good ;  while  in  the  events  of  his 
own  life,  such  as  his  enforced  departure 
from  his  ancestral  home,  his  peasant's  lot, 
his  despised  Galilean  breeding,  his  rejec- 
tion and  crucifixion,  he  saw  again  the  dis- 
tinct utterance  and  coherent  development 
of  the  word.  Every  feature  of  his  life, 
even  the  anointing  of  his  feet  by  a  woman 
whose  presence  was  considered  vile,  was  a 
gospel  of  God.  He  offered  no  evidence 
of  this,  but  he  trained  his  disciples  to  see 
it;  and  the  final  illumination  of  their  souls, 
transforming  them  into  prophets  and  poets, 
certainly  proved  the  value  of  his  method 
and  the  soundness  of  his  view. 

It  is  actually  after  this  fashion  that  men 
do  ever  obtain  the  realization  of  God. 
Nature,  doubtless,  contains  the  elements 
of  proof,  and  to  a  complete  perception 
things  stand  together  in  that  rational 
unity  which  is  itself  the  best  proof  of  the 
soundness  of  our  vision.  Indeed,  the  best 
proof  is  always  the  normal   increase   and 


REVELATION.  195 

widenins:  out  of  the  vision  itself,  and  this 
is  a  revelatory  process.     To  this  nature  is 
adapted;  for  we  find  her  ever  deepening 
and  widening,  ever  becoming  more  spirit- 
ual and  more  rational  to  the  view  of  the 
disciplined  soul.     To  the  eye  of  Christ,  no 
fact  failed  to  be  significant  of  God.     How- 
ever the  fact  originated,  in  whatever  line 
of  causation  the  movement  began,  it  had 
an   ultimate    coordination   with   God   that 
made   it   revelatory.     "Are   not  five  spar- 
rows sold  for  two  farthings  .?     Yet  not  one 
of   them   can  fall   to   the  ground  without 
your  Father."    Jesus  nowhere  claimed  that 
nature  proved  God,  in   our  present  stage 
of  development.     Neither  was  nature  iden- 
tical with  God,  but  its  facts  were  so  corre- 
spondent to  Him  and  so  coordinated  with 
Him  as  to  suggest  Him,  psychically,  ratio- 
nally, and  spiritually.     The  dome   of    St. 
Peter's  expresses  the  soul  of  Michael  An- 
gelo ;  so  does  the  dome  of  the  sky  express 
the  soul   of   its   Creator.     "The   heavens 
declare  the  glory  of  God."     It  is  an   ut- 
terance rather  than  an  argument ;    "  their 
harp    string    (by    its    vibrant    note)    has 
gone  out  through  all  the  earth,"  says  the 


1 96  RE  VELA  TION. 

Psalmist.  The  invisible  things  of  Him 
are  plainly  seen,  says  St.  Paul,  being  per- 
ceived by  the  things  that  are  made.  Not 
only  so,  but,  as  was  said  a  moment  ago, 
the  movement  is  toward  larger,  completer 
coordination,  toward  the  more  perfect 
mediumship  and  spiritualization  of  matter. 
Nor  is  this  movement  confined  to  the 
visible  agencies  about  us;  it  takes  in  the 
whole  universe  of  the  Logos.  This  ex- 
plains what  otherwise  appears  inexplica- 
ble. When  Jesus  was  asked  on  oath,  by 
the  High  Priest,  if  he  were  the  Christ,  he 
replied  that  he  was,  and  he  added,  "  Here- 
after thou  shalt  see  the  Son  of  man  sitting 
in  the  right  hand  of  power  and  coming 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven."  At  first  glance 
these  words  seem  to  indicate  a  startling 
departure  from  the  ordinary  sane  and  prac- 
tical naturalism  of  Jesus.  Besides,  there 
is  an  apparent  absurdity  in  the  very  state- 
ment. He  clings  to  his  term.  Son  of  man, 
which  stands  for  his  entirely  naturalistic 
view  of  the  messiahship,  and  yet  couples 
it  with  the  most  anti-natural  kind  of  su- 
pernaturalism.  But  a  careful  study  of  his 
previously  uttered  words   to   his   disciples 


REVELATION.  1 9/ 

shows  that  this  coming  of  the  Son  of  man 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  was  to  his  mind  a 
perfectly  natural  development ;  in  fact,  it 
stood  together  with  his  being  the  Son  of 
man,  or,  in  other  words,  the  final  type  and 
stem  of  humanity. 

There  is  in  the  kingdom  of  nature 
such  a  coordination  of  different  systems 
that  they  all  meet  in  certain  climacterics. 
When  the  ground  is  soft  and  ready  for  the 
seed,  then  from  the  upper  world  of  the 
tree-top  there  drops  an  acorn.  When  in 
the  springtime  the  buds  are  properly  de- 
veloped for  it,  there  comes  up  from  the 
distant  south  a  warm  wave  of  air,  and  in  a 
few  hours  nature  is  transformed.  In  the 
harvest  time,  when  the  grain  has  silently 
and  imperceptibly  reached  its  organic  com- 
pletion, out  from  that  higher  realm  of  man- 
hood come  the  reapers,  and  in  a  day  the 
field  is  harvested.  Thus  do  the  different 
worlds  and  systems  move  together  in  un- 
seen correlation,  while  in  organic  crises 
their  coordination  is  developed  with  over- 
whelming power.  This  is  the  gist  of  many 
of  Christ's  parables  concerning  the  God- 
realm.     Nature  imperceptibly  moves  with 


198  REVELATION. 

the  organisms  of  the  spiritual  kingdom, 
he  taught,  until  the  natural  shall  become 
supernaturalized,  and  nature  shall  break 
forth  in  one  vast  theophany.  The  sud- 
denness of  this  final  coordination  he  often 
dwelt  upon.  "  Behold,"  said  he,  "  the  fig- 
tree  and  all  the  trees,  when  they  now 
shoot  forth,  ye  see  it  and  know  of  your 
own  selves  that  the  summer  is  nigh."  So 
Jesus  declared  it  was  to  be  with  the  God- 
realm  ;  it,  too,  was  to  have  its  grand  cli- 
macteric, its  sudden  issuance  into  summer 
tide,  its  quick  precipitation  of  supernatu- 
ral powers  and  glories,  its  sudden  reckon- 
ins:  with  unseen  environment.  Sudden, 
too,  and  unforeseen,  save  by  those  who 
walk  in  the  light  of  the  revelatory  process, 
was  to  be  the  clothing  of  humanity's  stem 
with  the  majesty  of  God.  But  for  him 
who  understands  spiritual  law  and  who 
reads  the  daily  prophecy  of  the  unfold- 
ing organs,  there  is  a  perfect  genetic  con- 
tinuity, an  unbroken  chain  of  causation, 
such  as  underlies  all  of  nature's  surprises. 

It  is  but  natural  that  when  the  earth  is 
ripe,  heaven  should  descend  upon  her.  It 
is  but  natural  that  the  manifestation  of  the 


REVELATION.  1 99 

Logos  should  suddenly  take  on  the  divine 
majesty  and  appear  to  be,  what  it  really  is 
in  the  grander  sense,  a  coming  down  out 
of  heaven,  a  descent  from  the  highest  field 
of  causation.  The  first  manifestation  was 
a  supernatural  embryo,  the  babe  Christ 
Jesus ;  the  second  must  naturally  be  a 
spiritualized  human  form,  the  Son  of  man 
coming  in  the  glory  of  the  Father  with 
the  messengers  of  the  word.  Natural,  also, 
is  it  that  he  shall  usher  in  judgment,  for  it 
will  be  the  great  crisis  both  of  evolution 
and  of  revelation.  The  cosmos  is  continu- 
ally experiencing  crises;  these  occur  either 
at  the  birth  or  maturity  of  any  organ, 
wherever  there  is  a  new,  grand  coordina- 
tion to  be  made,  as  when  the  stem  rises 
above  ground,  or  the  corn  is  ready  for  the 
sickle  ;  there  is  a  crisis  and  a  revelation ; 
that  which  is  fitted  for  the  new  coordina- 
tion then  goes  forward  into  a  larger  life ; 
that  which  is  not  prepared  is  cast  away. 
So,  when  at  last  this  present  cosmos,  this 
system  of  life  and  death  and  decay,  is  ripe 
for  the  last  great  coordination  with  God,  it 
it  is  but  natural  that  there  should  be  a 
World-Vision  of  the  kingdom  when  Christ, 


200  REVELATION. 

the  stem,  shall  appear  to  all  men  ;  when  the 
glory  of  the  Father,  which  has  been  hid 
within  him,  shall  break  forth ;  when  he, 
who  is  the  natural  organ  of  unity  between 
heaven  and  earth  shall  stand  visibly  be- 
tween the  two.  Coordination  is  never  on 
one  side  alone ;  if  earth  has  been  prepar- 
ing for  heaven,  so,  too,  has  heaven  for 
earth.  It  is  but  natural,  therefore,  that 
w^ien  earth's  harvest  is  ripe,  that  Determi- 
native Personality,  which  is  back  of  all 
law,  and  all  force,  and  all  judgments,  and 
all  crises,  and  all  revelations,  should  then 
appear,  shining  through  nature  like  the 
sun  in  his  strength,  and  above  all  glorify- 
ing him  who  is  the  Type  of  manhood  and 
the  Likeness  of  Deity.  Nor  shall  Nature 
herself,  transmissive  though  she  be,  find 
herself  able  to  bear  so  great  a  glory.  Nay, 
but  there  shall  be  "  a  great  white  throne, 
and  one  sitting  on  it,  from  whose  face  the 
earth  and  the  heaven  flee  away."  For 
evolution  means  not  only  consummation 
upward,  but  also  the  manifestation  of  that 
which  is  within,  aye,  and  the  descent  also 
of  the  highest  into  the  lowest;  it  means, 
moreover,  a  sudden  final  coordination,  and 


REVELATION,  201 

the  disclosure  and  separation  of  all  that  is 
unfit  to  survive,  and  the  manifestation  of 
all  causes  and  the  secrets  of  all  hearts, 
and  the  setting  of  all  things  in  the  light 
of  life,  which  is  the  light  of  God.  Thus, 
nature  is  not  only  in  its  structure  and  cor- 
respondence, but  in  its  developments  and 
issues,  revelatory  and  prophetic,  for  the 
material  corresponds  to  the  psychic  and 
the  psychic  to  the  spiritual,  and  the  lower 
development  of  the  organ  is  a  prophecy  of 
the  higher  development. 

This,  probably,  was  what  Lord   Bacon 
saw,    when    he    declared    that    "prophecy 
had  a  springing  and  germinant  fulfillment 
throughout  all  time,"  and  this  undoubtedly 
is   the   key  to   all   sound    prophetic   inter- 
pretation, particularly  of  Christ's  eschato- 
logical  teachings.     He  is  suddenly  asked 
by  his  disciples   when   Jerusalem   will    be 
destroyed,  and  what  shall  be   the  sign  of 
his  coming  and  of  the  end  of  the  world. 
It   was   a  question    concerning    a   fact    of 
infinite    complexity.      His    answer    shows 
clearly  a  purpose  not  to  convey  to  them, 
even   if  he   knew   it,   the  day   or  hour  of 
the  final  climacteric,  but  to  plant  in  their 


202  RE  VELA  TION. 

minds  the  seeds  of  a  larger  idea,  namely, 
how  this  process  of  spiritual  evolution, 
revelation,  and  judgment,  with  himself  as 
its  stem,  must  repeat  itself  in  every  age 
and  in  every  life,  as  well  as  in  the  larger 
cycle  of  the  cosmos.  So  while  he  declares 
that  "  the  times  of  the  nations  must  first 
be  fulfilled,"  thus  clearly  pointing  out  a 
vast  diameter,  he  likewise  adds,  "  iJiis  gen- 
eration shall  not  pass  till  all  these  things 
be  fulfilled,"  so  indicating  the  narrower 
cycle  of  fulfillment  with  its  diameter  of  a 
single  human  life,  and  its  practical  lesson, 
"  Be  ye  also  ready."  Both  cycles  are  un- 
questionably a  fact ;  both  assertions  are 
true,  though  apparently  contradictory,  for 
each  organism  corresponds  in  development 
to  the  cosmic  organism. 

But  while  the  universe  is  revelatory  both 
as  a  whole  and  in  its  parts,  it  does  not  fol- 
low that  any  man,  simply  because  he  has  a 
keen  intellect,  may  pick  out  any  section  of 
it,  and  expect  to  find  there  a  satisfactory 
revelation  of  God.  As  has  been  already 
seen,  revelation  is  a  complex  thing;  exter- 
nal facts  have  many  correspondences.  The 
question  of  what  a  thing  reveals  depends  on 


REVELATION.  203 

what  it  is  actually  coordinated  with  at  the 
time,  and  also  on  the  perceptive  develop- 
ment.     The  short-siohted  vision  of  Peter 

o 

coordinated  the  cross  with  evil  only,  and 
shrank  from  it,  Christ's  vision  traversed 
the  great  arc  of  God's  providence,  and  saw 
in  the  cross  His  glory. 

It  is  ih^/ifzal  fact  with  which  things  are 
coordinated  to  our  vision,  that  determines 
our  revelation.  It  is  this  that  empties  the 
cosmos  of  God,  or  fills  it  with  a  divine 
radiance.  It  is  so  in  our  secular  revelations. 
The  laborer  plods  stolidly  along  after  the 
plow;  the  warm  earth  opens  up  lovingly 
at  his  feet;  the  bluebird's  note  of  praise 
falls  on  his  ear;  the  breath  of  spring  ca- 
resses him  ;  all  about  him  are  revelations  of 
nature's  life,  its  gladsomeness,  its  hope,  its 
benediction,  but  none  of  these  revelations 
move  him,  for  all  these  things  are  seen  in 
the  light  of  one  sordid  fact,  the  necessity 
of  work.  We  are  all  much  like  that;  in 
our  dullness  we  fail  to  catch  our  revela- 
tions; in  our  sordidness  we  coordinate 
them  with  some  uncomfortable,  dark,  or 
evil  embodiment  of  life,  and  thus  they  are 
distorted  or  obscured.    Did  not  God  bring 


204  RE  VELA  TION. 

into  the  world  those  poetic  souls,  who  are 
not  only  the  interpreters  of  nature,  but 
the  crowning  embodiments  of  her  sensitive 
life,  and  thus  put  us  in  touch  with  life, 
we  should  miss  its  nobler  language  alto- 
gether. Such  souls,  taken  in  unison  with 
their  life  history,  are  the  stems  of  the  rev- 
elatory process,  and  it  is  in  proportion  as 
facts  stand  together  with  them,  that  the 
facts  themselves  become  revelatory.  In- 
deed, such  men  are  themselves  revelations 
par  eminence ;  they  are  the  final  and  de- 
finitive factor  in  the  process,  just  as  the 
object  glass  is  with  the  telescope ;  and  as 
we  study  the  teachings  of  Jesus,  we  see 
that  this  was  precisely  his  view  of  a  divine 
revelation.  Revelatory  as  nature  was  to 
him,  earnestly  as  he  taught  his  disciples 
to  listen  to  its  teachings,  clearly  as  he 
traced  the  .utterance  of  the  word  in  daily 
events,  it  is  perfectly  evident  that  he 
always  conceived  of  nature  as  standing 
over  against  the  fact  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures; he  never  thought  of  interpreting 
one  without  the  aid  of  the  other.  Both 
belonged  to  God,  but  the  Scriptures  were 
the  stem  and  norm  of  all  revelations,  the 


REVELATION.  205 

specific  embodiment  of  the  divine  spirit, 
the  revelation  par  eminence,  the  final  au- 
thority and  type,  with  which  all  things  were 
to  be  coordinated.  To  them  he  gave  the 
most  diligent  study.  They  were  his  law 
of  holiness,  his  support  in  temptation,  his 
resource  in  agony.  Obviously,  too,  he  re- 
garded himself  as  their  outcome.  He  him- 
self, with  his  gospel  —  that  is,  the  facts  of 
his  life  —  was  to  constitute  the  crowning 
organism  of  revelation.  The  facts  of  the 
universe  were  revelations  to  men  in  pro- 
portion as  they  were  coordinated  with  him. 
"  No  man  knoweth  the  Father  save  the 
Son  and  He  to  whom  the  Son  willeth  to 
reveal  him."  This  saying  evidently  made 
a  deep  impression.  It  is  given  both  by 
Matthew  and  Luke,  and  must  have  formed 
a  part  of  the  earliest  gospel. 

And  it  is  matter  of  fact  that  all  the 
events  of  the  gospel  are  luminous  and  sug- 
gestive of  God,  because  of  their  coordina- 
tion with  the  person  of  Jesus.  Wrested 
from  that  coordination  and  associated 
with  some  evil  object,  those  same  facts  be- 
come as  dark  and  malignant  as  they  did  to 
the    Pharisees.     This   surely  corroborates 


206  RE  VELA  TION. 

Christ's  point,  that  revelation  had  its  stem 
or  interpretative  organism,  namely,  first, 
the  Law  and  the  Prophets  which  were  until 
John,  and  then  the  Christ,  and  that  the 
revelatoriness  of  nature  to  us  depends  on 
its  being  coordinated  with  this  interpre- 
tative organism.  I  have  already  said  that 
this  is  true  in  secular  things.  Indeed,  this 
fact  of  a  central  organism  or  stem  in  which 
the  revelatory  life  is  specialized  both  for 
an  interpretative  and  a  reproductive  pur- 
pose extends  into  every  department  of  the 
world's  development.  The  universe  cer- 
tainly reveals  beauty  at  every  point,  but 
there  is  everywhere  the  possibility  of  dis- 
tortion through  incongruous  coordination, 
and  we  should  never  have  been  sufficiently 
rescued  from  such  effects,  or  quickened 
into  ^esthetic  vitality,  if  it  had  not  been  for 
such  a  specific  organism  of  the  beautiful  as 
has  been  furnished  us  by  the  Greek  race 
and  by  Greek  skies.  So,  too,  although 
common  human  nature  unquestionably 
contains  the  elements  both  of  law  and  civil 
liberty,  yet  this  general  revelation  would 
not  have  been  sufficient  to  reveal  the  idea 
of  free  crovernment,  had  it    not  been    for 


RE  VELA  TION.  20/ 

such  a  series  of  selected  and  specially  vital- 
ized types  as  has  been  furnished  to  the 
race  by  the  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
people. 

We  can  therefore  understand  the  signi- 
ficance of  Christ's  saying  to  the  Samaritan 
woman,  "  You  worship,  you  know  not  what. 
We  know  what  we  worship,  for  salvation 
is  of  the  Jews."  The  Samaritans  had  only 
the  Pentateuch,  and  even  this,  cut  off  from 
the  organism  to  which  it  belonged,  was 
coordinated  with  a  nucleus  of  half  idola- 
trous institutions  that  destroyed  whatever 
of  clearness  there  was  in  it.  Salvation  was 
of  the  Jews,  because  our  development  in 
correspondence  to  God  depends  on  our 
revelation  of  Him,  and  our  revelation  of 
Him  depends  on  our  being  able  to  coor- 
dinate our  vision  with  that  which  is  the 
crowning  organism  of  revelation.  For  this 
crowning  organism  must  of  course  be  not 
only  interpretative,  but  creative  of  spiritual 
vision.  It  is  not  only  the  organism  of  light, 
but  of  life,  since  perception  is  a  form  of 
vitality.  To  come  then  to  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, we  have  by  this  position  cleared 
away  many  of    its  difficulties.     We  have 


208  REVELATION. 

found  that  it  is  not  an  anti-natural  or  ideal 
communication  sent  down  from  heaven. 
It  is  a  part  of  nature,  a  section  of  nature's 
history,  a  series  of  types,  persons,  events 
selected  from  nature,  and  segregated  into 
a  specific  organism  by  a  process  gradual 
and  perfectly  natural,  yet  at  the  same  time 
supernatural.  We  have  learned  that  its 
purpose  is  not  to  give  us  extra -natural 
facts,  but  to  interpret  natural  facts,  —  that 
one  great  object  is  to  illustrate  the  law 
by  which  man,  the  child  of  God,  the  super- 
natural embryo,  develops  in  correspond- 
ence to  God ;  but  particularly  we  have 
learned  that  its  purpose  as  regards  God  is 
to  present  Him,  not  in  an  infinite  and 
transcendent  apartness  from  nature,  but  in 
his  relationship  to  it,  and  particularly  in 
those  limitations  to  w^hich  he  is  subjected 
by  his  living  with  his  children  in  the  same 
house.  Thus  the  Law  and  the  Prophets 
are  really  the  law  of  the  cosmos,  as  it 
is  upbuilt  by  spiritual  coordination  with 
God. 

The  criticism,  therefore,  so  constantly 
bestowed  upon  the  Bible  for  the  evils  it 
reveals,  must  fall  to  the  ground,  or  at  least 


REVELATION.  209 

it  must  give  way  to  the  question  whether 
they  are  not  the  very  things  we  are  to 
expect,  seeing  it  is  not  an  ideal  revelation 
of  a  perfect  society,  or  of  any  complete 
statutes  of  a  heavenly  realm,  but  the  dis- 
closure of  the  process  by  which  evil  and 
falsehood  and  sin  are  overcome  by  gradual 
coordination  with  the  divine  word. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

THE    SPECIFIC    ORGANISM    OF    REVELATION. 

A  GENERAL  glance  at  the  Old  Testament 
confirms  Christ's  view,  for  it  shows  us 
that  it  is  a  genuine  section  of  human  his- 
tory, following  the  ordinary  laws  of  human 
development  from  the  tribal  period  to  the 
national,  and  from  a  climax  of  monarchical 
splendor,  through  various  stages  of  decay, 
toward  a  new  climax  of  spiritual  vitality 
and  glory. 

The  organism  begins  with  an  event 
common  in  history.  Out  from  the  midst 
of  a  great  empire,  in  which  literature,  civil- 
ization, and  religion  have  reached  a  high 
pitch,  there  come  various  Semitic  migra- 
tions ;  one  of  these  is  the  Hebrew.  It 
enters  Palestine,  bringing  with  it,  like  the 
soil  about  the  roots  of  a  transplanted  tree, 
some  of  the  life,  literature,  traditions,  and 
even  the  household  gods  of  the  old  coun- 
try from  which  it  came.     Yet  the  move- 


ORGANISM   OF  REVELATION.  211 

ment  has  in  it  a  distinctive  and  separative 
aim,  imparted  to  it  by  the  determined 
spirit  of  Abraham,  its  leader  ;  it  is  a  protest 
against  the  spiritual  tyrannies  and  distor- 
tions of  the  day.  It  is  more  than  that ;  it  is 
a  positive  and  vivid  faith  in  the  Almighty 
as  a  sovereign  and  friend.  The  distinct 
idea  of  a  Transcendent  God  stamped  upon 
Abraham's  mind,  borne  in  upon  it  from  the 
starry  universe  to  which  he  lifts  up  his  eyes, 
is  the  organic  force  of  Hebraism.  Admit- 
ting large  reciprocity  with  other  peoples, 
it  nevertheless  lays  inevitable  bounds  to 
such  reciprocity.  Like  every  great  organic 
force,  it  tends  to  segregate  into  a  fixed  type. 
This  it  accomplishes  by  reproducing  from 
time  to  time  a  s^reat  stem  man,  in  whom 
this  idea  of  the  living  Creator  and  Saviour 
is  supreme.  Thus,  when  the  tribe,  like 
any  other  small  migration  of  that  day,  is 
obliged  to  fly  for  refuge  from  famine  to  the 
great  empire  of  Egypt,  and  there  natu- 
rally falls  into  bondage,  there  rises  the 
preeminent  stem  of  the  organism,  Moses, 
possessed  of  an  Egyptian  education,  but 
intensely  imbued  with  the  Abrahamic  idea 
of  God.    With  Moses  as  its  stem  and  head, 


212  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

the  creator  of  its  literature  and  institutions, 
the  Hebrew  people  are  formed  into  a  nation. 
Returning  to  Canaan,  they  carry  with  them 
many  of  the  Egyptian  ideas,  much  of  its 
culture,  and,  it  would  appear,  some  of  its 
institutions  and  ceremonies ;  but  these  are 
so  winnowed  and  sanctified  by  the  master- 
ful spirituality  of  Moses  that  they  may  be 
said  to  be  born  anew,  and  to  be  fairly  in- 
corporated into  the  Hebrew  type. 

That  is  the  human  side  of  it ;  it  is  the 
coordination  that  strikes  one  as  divine ;  but 
this  coordination  occurs  in  ordinary  human 
affairs.  An  old  optician  is  at  work,  repair- 
ing spectacles.  His  little  grandchild  is 
amusing  herself  by  picking  up  the  lenses, 
lying  loose  upon  the  table,  and  looking 
through  them.  She  finds  a  curious  effect 
from  putting  one  in  front  of  the  other,  and 
suddenly  exclaims,  "  I  can  see  the  figures 
on  the  town  clock  yonder."  That  was  the 
discovery  of  the  telescope.  Can  any  man 
who  believes  in  God  say  that  this  coor- 
dination, upon  which  the  whole  structure 
of  modern  astronomy  has  risen,  was  made 
by  those  childish  hands  alone  ?  Shall  we 
not  rather  say  that  those  hands  were  un- 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.         213 

consciously  directed  by  the  same  power 
that  leads  the  planets  in  their  courses,  and 
the  lonely  waterfowl  through  the  wide  sky  ? 
Unquestionably  Moses  believed  that  his 
hands  were  directed,  and  his  thoughts  sug- 
gested, by  the  living  God,  so  tliat  the  frame- 
work of  government  which  he  established, 
notwithstanding  its  secular  and  Egyptian 
elements,  was  in  its  combination  the  law 
and  revelation  of  Jehovah ;  and  in  fact  it 
is  characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  organism 
that  the  process  is  quite  as  natural  as 
divine.  We  recognize  it  as  the  same  cos- 
mos with  which  we  are  familiar,  but  the 
coordinations  are  so  salient,  and  the  crown- 
ing facts  so  suggestive  of  God,  that  the 
whole  thing  appears  to  be  transfigured  into 
a  supernatural  history.  This  appears  more 
fully  if  we  consider  its  three  great  features, 
namely.  Legality,  Ceremonialism,  and  Mira- 
cles. First,  its  Legality :  there  was  in  the 
Mosaic  plan  of  government  neither  reli- 
gious nor  secular  liberty,  no  free  play  of 
moral  or  industrial  forces.  It  was  a  hard 
and  fast  union  of  church  and  state.  No 
man  could  choose  his  own  object  or  form 
of  worship.     Neither  could  he  initiate  his 


214         ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

own   generic  mode   of   spiritual    thought. 
That  was  already  formed  for  him. 

Every  spiritual  idea,  relationship,  or  ne- 
cessity, every  coordination  between  the 
natural  and  supernatural,  was  expressed  by 
an  external  law,  and  with  the  law  was  asso- 
ciated judgment  and  penal t}^  This  was 
not  due  to  any  arbitrariness;  it  was  the 
only  way  these  ideas  could  be  expressed  at 
the  outset,  for  the  eye  of  man  was  as  yet 
rudimentary ;  it  could  only  perceive  spirit- 
ual things  in  their  external  aspects,  nor 
did  it  penetrate  far  into  the  form.  The 
only  environment,  therefore,  that  could 
develop  spiritual  vision  was  a  vast  series 
of  types.  Through  them  the  spiritual  real- 
ity was  dimly  but  increasingly  transmitted. 
Thus  the  idea  of  divine  power  could  only 
be  disclosed  under  the  symbol  of  physical 
force ;  spiritual  authority  must  needs  ap- 
pear in  the  form  of  a  Visible  Head ;  God's 
sovereignty,  as  an  absolute  monarchy ;  spir- 
itual law,  as  earthly  statute.  Again,  the 
effect  of  obedience  to  spiritual  law  must 
be  manifested  under  the  type  of  earthly 
rewards,  while  those  retroactive  effects  and 
malcreations  that  result  from  disobedience 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.         21$ 

to  spiritual  law,  or  indeed  to  organic  law 
of  any  kind,  must  be  represented  by  earthly 
penalties  and  curses.  Furthermore,  that 
living  reciprocity  between  God  and  men, 
which  is  the  foundation  of  Righteousness, 
must  be  conveyed  by  a  house  of  God,  in 
which  God  manifested  himself  formally,  to 
which,  also,  men  brought  offerings,  and 
from  which  they  took  away  blessings.  In- 
deed, the  coordination  of  earthly  with  hea- 
venly things  must  be  shown  throughout 
by  a  series  of  statutes  and  observances  that 
connected  every  human  interest  with  the 
temple.  Not  a  child  could  be  born,  not  a 
field  cultivated,  not  a  herd  raised,  not 
a  disease  incurred  nor  a  recovery  expe- 
rienced, not  a  war  undertaken,  but  its 
relation  to  the  spiritual  world  must  be 
expressed  in  some  solemn  rite,  associating 
it  with  the  house  of  God  and  the  gate  of 
heaven. 

Thus  the  organic  unity  between  God 
and  man,  between  the  spiritual  and  the 
secular  worlds,  necessarily  assumed  the 
form  of  a  mechanical  theocracy.  In  no 
other  way  could  the  conception  of  spirit- 
ual unity  have  been  presented  or  enforced. 


2l6  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

To  our  modern  view,  the  whole  theocratic 
notion  is  wrong  and  absurd ;  the  use  of 
temporal  power  in  the  spiritual  realm  is 
to  us  the  worst  of  all  tyrannies  ;  insistence 
on  a  single  type  of  religion  is  bigotry ;  the 
punishment  of  non-conformity  is  wicked 
persecution.  All  this  is  quite  true  at  the 
present  day,  because  the  spiritual  organs 
are  in  a  very  different  stage  of  develop- 
ment. To  force  any  mature  organ  into  an 
environment  adapted  to  infancy  would  be 
cruel  indeed,  but  at  the  time  the  Hebrew 
revelation  began,  the  method  was  adapted 
to  the  organ,  for  the  organ  was  infantile. 
It  was  impossible  to  construct  an  inter- 
pretative environment  in  any  other  way. 
All  the  great  religions  were  theocracies ; 
ALL  spiritual  conceptions  were  formal;  all 
unities  were  external ;  all  notions  of  law 
legal.  There  is  no  greater  distinction  be- 
tween the  ancient  world  and  our  own  than 
in  this  conception  of  law.  Under  the  in- 
fluence of  Christianity  and  education,  law, 
whether  moral,  religious,  social,  or  indus- 
trial, has  grown  to  appear  what  it  really  is, 
not  an  artificial  decree,  but  the  order  of 
nature ;  law  is  natural  law,  it  is  the  law  of 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.  21/ 

our  own  organism  ;  obedience  brings  a 
reward,  because  it  harmonizes  with  the 
structure  of  things.  For  the  same  reason, 
disobedience  involves  perpetual  misery. 
As  St.  Paul  said,  to  the  spiritualized  and 
educated  man  no  legal  enactment  is  nec- 
essary, the  law  is  written  in  his  heart,  he 
understands  the  principles  and  necessities 
of  the  spiritual  organism,  and  may  be 
trusted  to  apply  them  as  he  sees  fit.  If 
legal  statutes  exist  in  an  enlightened  spir- 
itual community,  they  are  reduced  to  the 
minimum  necessary  as  an  education  to  the 
weak  and  a  restraint  to  those  who  are  still 
gross  and  uneducated.  But  they  have  no 
place  in  the  completed  kingdom  of  God, 
the  perfect  human  society.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  ancient  times  the  masses  of  the 
people  had  not  the  faintest  conception  of 
law  as  natural ;  they  had  no  perception  of 
the  organism,  national  or  spiritual,  simply 
because  they  had  as  yet  no  eye  for  the 
spiritual  forces  that  build  up  society,  or  of 
those  underlying  correlations  that  lie  at 
the  basis  of  all  social  unities.  The  mod- 
ern citizen  is,  at  least,  a  living  cell  of  the 
national    structure.      The    Hebrews   were 


2l8  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

mostly  inorganic  masses,  in  whom  the  cell- 
life  had  not  yet  been  formed ;  hence  legal- 
ity was  a  necessity,  and  a  theocracy  is  the 
natural  evolution  of  legality.  It  was  the 
only  possible  issue  out  of  the  situation. 
Even  within  our  own  century,  religious 
leaders,  such  as  Newman  and  Manning, 
have  fled  for  defense  against  rationalism 
to  a  papal  power  and  an  external  author- 
ity, because  they  felt  they  had  no  spiritual 
organism  adequate  to  the  control  of  the 
masses.  Their  feeling  seems  to  most  of 
us  false,  but  having  it  there  was  for  them 
no  alternative. 

Even  at  the  present  day,  millions  of  our 
fellow  Christians  have  so  feeble  a  concep- 
tion of  spiritual  law  and  of  purely  spiritual 
forces  that  they  dare  not  attempt  to  get 
along  without  a  formal  unity  and  a  me- 
chanical theocracy;  and  if  this  is  true 
when  Christ  is  only  hid,  how  much  more 
was  it  true  before  Christ  came.  There 
was  then  no  spiritualizing  force  like  the 
gospel,  whose  potency  might  be  brought 
out  by  a  leader  who  understood  it.  As  we 
read  the  history  of  Israel,  we  see  plainly 
the   tendencies  to  disintegration,  and  the 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.  219 

impossibility  of  maintaining  any  nucleus 
for  a  national  revelation,  or,  indeed,  any 
national  unity  at  all,  without  the  stern- 
est constraint.  Men  needed  to  be  held 
to  an  outward  manifestation.  The  only 
notion  of  divine  glory  possible  to  them  was 
that  of  a  glittering  effulgence  ;  the  only 
aspect  of  authority  which  prevailed  with 
them  in  their  ebullitions  of  animalism  was 
that  of  terror.  The  only  conception  of  law 
which  they  could  appreciate  was  that  of  a 
statute  enforced  by  rewards  and  penalties. 
It  is  true  that  the  nobler  spirits  were 
susceptible  to  the  spiritual  law  of  faith; 
but  even  in  their  case  the  element  of  tem- 
poral reward  was  a  necessity,  and  as  for 
the  masses,  their  extreme  animalism  made 
it  impossible  for  them  to  keep  their  eye 
patiently  upon  such  a  future  hope.  It 
was  the  negative  side  of  law,  the  terrible 
"  Thou  shalt  nots,"  which  alone  could  lay 
hold  upon  them.  Thus,  by  sheer  neces- 
sity, even  the  Decalogue,  that  great  law  of 
love,  based  upon  the  divine  goodness  of 
Jehovah,  must  needs  take  the  negative 
form  which  is  characteristic  of  all  legality; 
for  legality  is  always  the  formal  and  rudi- 


220         ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

mentary  presentation  of  law,  while  law  is 
in  itself  natural,  afifirmative,  and  organic. 
Another  feature  of  this  rudimentary  stage 
of  revelation  was  the  extreme  preponder- 
ance of  punishment  as  a  revelatory  force. 
Precisely  as  legal  enactment  must  needs 
constitute  the  original  revelation  of  or- 
ganic law,  and  the  negative  side  of  the 
statute  must  necessarily  be  the  prominent 
one,  so  for  the  same  reason,  in  the  primi- 
tive revelation,  penalty  must  play  the  prin- 
cipal part.  Thus,  even  in  the  original 
Mosaic  covenant,  that  terrible  "  eye  for  an 
eye  "  code  appears  founded  on  the  justice 
of  God,  and  rightly,  too,  for  justice  is  re- 
gard due  to  the  organism.  The  animal 
sense  that  cannot  be  attracted  by  the 
beneficence  of  law,  or  steadily  fixed  upon 
the  hope  of  reward,  must  be  caught  and 
riveted  by  some  stern  symbol  of  the  law's 
necessity  and  of  the  curse  that  follows 
disobedience.  This  necessity  underlies  all 
forms  and  stages  of  government.  It  has 
been  held  by  many  that  government  and 
law  are  educative.  This  is  in  a  certain 
sense  profoundly  true,  but  not  exactly  in 
the  sense   conceived  ;   they  are  educative, 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.  221 

because  they  are  revelatory,  and  their  edu- 
cative value  depends  upon  their  following 
the  law  of  revelation.  So  long  as  they  are 
the  outward  and  comprehensible  types  of 
spiritual  facts  and  laws,  they  do  indeed 
educate  man ;  when  they  are  too  far  in 
advance  of  the  age,  when  they  cease  to  be 
transmissive  of  spiritual  facts  and  forces, 
or  when  they  distort  those  ideal  realities, 
then  they  carry  man  backward  rather  than 
forward.  In  our  own  time,  so  great  has 
been  the  spiritual  revelation  of  Christ, 
that  consciously  or  unconsciously  we  have 
come  to  depend  upon  it  in  connection 
with  education. 

It  is  questionable  whether  any  one  thinks 
now  of  the  educative  or  revelatory  value  of 
penalty.  We  conceive  of  it  not  as  a  sym- 
bol of  the  crime,  or  the  injury  done  to  law, 
but  mainly  as  a  protection  to  society.  But 
this  is  a  dangerous  error.  In  the  nature 
of  things  penalty  must  always  possess  the 
revelatory  function,  and  in  a  primitive,  an 
animalized,  or  a  degenerated  condition  of 
things  it  must  inevitably  come  to  the  front. 
Thus,  it  always  looms  up  as  a  last  judg- 
ment for  a  wicked  society.     It  must  be,  as 


222  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

it  was  in  the  Old  Testament,  the  principal 
matrix  for  the  development  of  the  rudi- 
mentary moral  nature,  and,  if  the  moral 
sense  of  the  nation  is  degenerate,  then  its 
necessities  must  be  considered  rather  than 
those  of  the  individual  criminal ;  better 
he  should  be  turned  into  an  awful  symbol 
of  law  to  touch  the  nation's  conscience 
than  that  the  nation  itself  should  morally 
perish. 

This  same  necessity  for  expressing  spir- 
itual conditions,  under  the  form  of  pro- 
hibitory laws  and  suggestive  penalties,  is 
illustrated  in  another  aspect  of  the  primi- 
tive revelation.  The  class  of  things  to  be 
prohibited  is  vastly  enlarged.  This,  also, 
corresponds  to  nature.  In  the  primitive 
organism,  prohibition,  or,  what  is  the  same 
thing,  protection,  is  at  the  maximum ;  the 
vitality  of  the  organism  is  too  low  to  ad- 
mit of  an  extensive  reciprocity.  It  can 
incorporate  but  a  few  facts.  The  babe 
can  take  only  milk ;  meat  would  be  vio- 
lently injurious,  not  because  it  is  intrin- 
sically opposed  to  the  human  system,  but 
because  the  babe  is  not  able  to  subordi- 
nate it  to  the  vital  purposes  of  the  organ- 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION,         223 

ism.  That  which  cannot  be  subordinated 
naturally  becomes  poisonous  to  the  sys- 
tem ;  so  it  is  with  human  society,  and  this 
irreversible  law  appears  illustrated  in  the 
Old  Testament  revelation.  The  spiritual 
organism  was  in  a  low  state  of  vitality.  It 
was  a  babe,  it  could  subordinate  but  a  nar- 
row range  of  facts,  and  that  which  could 
not  be  subordinated  to  its  vital  necessities 
must  be  treated  as  a  poison,  or,  if  it  were 
personal,  it  must  be  treated  as  an  enemy. 
If  it  assumed  a  volitional  shape,  then  it  was 
rebellion  against  spiritual  law,  and  as  such 
must  be  punished  and  destroyed.  In  a 
Christian  nation,  possessed  of  a  strong 
spiritual  vitality  and  a  vivid  perception 
of  spiritual  perils,  there  is  no  necessity 
for  inflicting  penalties  upon  an  advocate 
of  infidelity,  upon  a  profane  swearer,  or 
upon  a  maker  of  graven  images,  not  even 
though  he  should  proceed  to  the  length  of 
worshiping  them  ;  the  whole  statuary  of 
the  Vatican  gallery  contains  for  our  re- 
ligion not  one  particle  of  danger.  So,  too, 
with  witchcraft,  necromancy,  spiritualism, 
and  other  modern  forms  of  dabbling  with 
the   occult ;  despite   their  evil  tendencies, 


224  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

both  to  soul  and  body,  it  is  better  that,  so 
far  as  possible,  they  should  be  left  to  the 
operation  of  spiritual  forces.  It  is  in  the 
interest  of  spirituality  itself  that  it  should 
be  utilized  to  the  utmost. 

So,  too,  it  would  be  absurd  to  object  to 
social  intercourse  with  any  people,  how- 
ever degraded,  except  in  the  case  of  the 
young  or  the  feeble-minded.  The  organ- 
ism of  an  educated  Christianity  is  quite 
capable  of  taking  care  of  itself,  and  if  de- 
veloped, as  it  should  be,  may  well  be 
trusted  to  exercise  the  widest  reciprocity 
and  to  subdue  all  things  to  itself.  Not 
so  with  Hebraism.  General  Armstrong, 
who  as  an  educator  had  made  a  profound 
practical  study  of  the  Indian,  negro,  and 
Polynesian  under  his  tuition,  prohibited 
dancing  at  Hampton  Institute.  In  his  terse 
phrase,  it  took  a  good  deal  of  civilization 
to  STAND  dancing.  It  was  not  unitable 
with  morality  in  the  primitive  or  degen- 
erate stages  of  moral  development.  So,  in 
the  Hebrew  revelation,  we  find  expressed 
in  various  forms  this  great  spiritual  law, 
that  facts  which  cannot  be  subordinated 
to  the  spiritual  organism  are  hostile  to  it. 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.  225 

To  bring  in  an  ununitable  or  an  insub- 
ordinate element  is  a  crime  against  God 
and  the  nation.  Filth,  personal  unclean- 
ness,  traces  of  passional  indulgence,  foul 
diseases,  all  these  could  not  be  tolerated 
in  the  camp  of  God's  people.  They  were 
not  forbidden  on  sanitary  grounds,  as  some 
have  supposed  (at  least  there  is  small  evi- 
dence of  such  fine  ideas  of  sanitation  in 
that  day);  they  were  forbidden  on  spiritual 
grounds,  because  they  were  not  unitable 
with  the  outward  symbols  of  holiness,  or 
with  the  anthropomorphic  conception  of 
God's  presence.  So,  too,  a  complete  mili- 
tary organization  could  not,  to  the  primi- 
tive Israelitish  mind,  be  harmonized  with 
the  conception  of  entire  faith  in  God,  any 
more  than  a  large  regular  army  is  at  pres- 
ent unitable  with  our  republican  liberty. 
It  involves  a  perilous  temptation.  We 
are  not  yet  strong  enough  for  it.  The 
same  principle  was  occasionally  applied 
with  regard  to  the  employment  of  a  phy- 
sician. There  was  no  law  against  it,  but 
the  procedure  seemed  antagonistic  to  that 
perfect  trust  which,  in  the  mind  of  the 
Israelitish  leaders,  was  the  absolute  neces- 


226  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

sity  of  soul  and  body.  An  external  unity 
cannot  tolerate  great  complexity.  The 
same  unwritten  but  formal  necessity  ap- 
pears in  the  account  of  the  taking  of  the 
census  by  David.  We  see  in  Joab's  re- 
monstrance against  the  decree  his  convic- 
tion that  it  was  an  evil  thing.  It  could 
not  be  coordinated  with  the  spiritual 
organism ;  it  would  strike  a  blow  at  faith ; 
it  would  generate  in  the  Israelites  that 
animal  pride  which  had  so  often,  in  Joab's 
experience,  brought  with  it  a  curse.  It 
was  better  to  trust  God  for  the  increase. 
Human  nature  could  not  resist  such  a 
temptation  ;  and  Joab  was  right,  supersti- 
tious though  it  would  be  at  the  present  day 
to  give  ear  to  such  considerations.  There 
being  then  no  science,  the  devil  filled  the 
vacuum.  To  take  a  census  in  David's  time 
was  to  introduce  among  the  people,  not  a 
useful,  popular  education,  but  a  ground  of 
pride,  that  could  not  be  united  with  that 
faith  which  was  the  nation's  vitality;  nor 
could  the  natural  sequence  of  such  an  act 
be  revealed  to  him,  or  his  people,  in  any 
other  way  than  by  a  heavy  affliction  falling 
upon  the  people   themselves,  and  so  cut- 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.         22/ 

ting  at  the  very  root  of  this  self-trust,  while 
it  pierced  the  king  to  the  quick  and  threw 
a  new  light  on  kingly  responsibility.  To 
have  taken  his  life  would  have  been  to  cut 
the  stem  from  the  branches.  This  spon- 
taneous legality,  radiating  as  it  does  an 
eternal  principle  of  spirituality,  shows  how 
flimsy  is  the  argument  that  the  law  was 
non-Mosaic,  and  was  foisted  on  the  struc- 
ture afterward.  How  much  of  the  system 
Moses  may  have  literally  communicated  is 
indeed  uncertain  and  little  to  the  point, 
for  the  whole  thing  is  included  in  the 
Mosaic  germ  contained  in  the  twentieth 
chapter  of  Exodus,  and  in  the  very  concep- 
tion of  an  interpretative  organism.  It  is 
the  legitimate  development  of  the  Sinaitic 
anthropomorphism  ;  and  that,  including,  of 
course,  in  its  evolution  all  the  relations 
between  God  and  man,  was  the  natural 
form  for  a  primitive  revelation  to  take, 
since  it  corresponded  to  the  spiritual  eye 
of  the  age.  Besides,  it  was  absolutely  es- 
sential that  the  interpretative  organism 
should  correspond  to  the  religious  devel- 
opment around  it.  To  do  any  good,  it 
had  to  be  a  section  of  the  history  of  the 


228  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

time,  a  series  of  selected  types  belonging 
to  the  age. 

In  fact,  the  spiritual  value  of  the  Old 
Testament  revelation  lies  in  almost  exactly 
the  opposite  direction  from  what  has  been 
supposed,  —  not  in  its  pure  separateness, 
but  in  its  affinity  for  the  religious  and 
governmental  forms  about  it.  This  makes 
it,  indeed,  an  interpretation  of  that  broader 
revelation  presented  by  the  development  of 
history  under  God's  hand.  The  isolation 
of  the  organism  was  only  carried  as  far  as 
was  necessary  for  the  sake  of  selection  and 
purification  ;  indeed,  after  its  immersion  in 
Egypt  at  the  outset,  the  nation  was  planted 
in  the  very  centre  of  the  great  empires 
and  on  their  warpath,  where  it  was  forced 
into  reciprocity.  Its  whole  civilization  was 
mainly  an  incorporation  of  outside  ele- 
ments, as  in  the  case  of  the  seed  in  the 
soil ;  nor  were  the  elements  which  it 
brought  from  Mesopotamia  eradicated; 
they  continued  a  part  of  its  structure. 
True,  the  grossest  and  most  cruel  forms 
were  expurgated,  but  cruel  forms  still  sur- 
vived :  polygamy  lingered ;  so  did  that 
savage    court    of    justice,    the    vendetta ; 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.  229 

likewise  the  brutal  system  of  maintaining 
the  army  by  the  spoils  of  the  vanquished 
and  the  sack  of  towns. 

These  survivals  of  savagery  would,  of 
course,  have  been  extirpated  if  the  object 
had  been  a  final  manifestation  of  God's  ideal, 
but  in  an  interpretative  organism  their  re- 
tention was  of  the  utmost  value,  because  it 
corresponded  to  national  development  uni- 
versally. We  see  the  savage  forms  in  Is- 
raelitish  history  perishing,  precisely  as  the 
spoils  system  is  dying  out  with  us  at  the 
present  day,  through  the  coordination  of 
society  with  spiritual  organisms.  We  see 
them  at  their  worst  mitigated  by  such 
coordinations,  as  in  the  case  where  the 
vendetta  is  associated  with  the  city  of 
refuge.  But,  above  all,  do  we  see  a  type 
of  the  way  in  which  God  universally  util- 
izes evil  by  his  employment  of  such  savage 
forms  for  the  purposes  of  his  own  spiritual 
government.  To  our  more  spiritualized 
mind  it  is  shocking  to  see  God  represented 
as  directing  a  barbarous  raid,  the  sack  of 
a  town,  the  division  of  the  spoil,  or  as  send- 
ing upon  his  creatures  a  horrible  leprosy, 
or  a  wicked  spirit  from  the   Lord.     Un- 


230  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

questionably  this  is  a  false  effect,  as  false 
as  that  produced  when  a  child  puts  on  his 
grandfather's  spectacles ;  the  refraction  is 
not  suited  to  us.  There  is  a  vital  ray  of 
truth  which  it  fails  to  focalize  upon  our 
retina.  We  have  developed  beyond  that 
revelation.  True,  we  see,  or  ought  to  see, 
that  in  some  sense  everything  is  coordi- 
nated with  God ;  we  see  that  the  most 
cruel  crimes,  such  as  the  crucifixion  of 
Jesus,  do  come  in  some  way  from  his 
ordering,  so  that  the  victim  can  say,  "  The 
cup  that  my  Father  hath  given  me,  shall  I 
not  drink  it?  "  But  we  also  see  that  God's 
orderings  are  not  mechanical,  and  that 
many  of  them  express  his  will  only  by 
indirection.  We  see  that  the  condition 
under  which  everything  goes  forward  is 
that  of  liberty ;  that  God's  method  of  act- 
ing on  men  is  psychic.  It  is  the  still,  small 
voice  of  suesfestion.  His  laws  are  the  laws 
of  our  own  structure ;  his  penalties  the 
retroactive  effect  of  these  laws.  When, 
for  example,  men  violate  the  law  of  that 
corporate  organism,  the  nation,  then  the 
organism  becomes  the  matrix  of  sin  and 
misery.     It  brings  forth  misshapen  person- 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.         23 1 

alities,  distorted  ideas,  cruel  institutions, 
plagues,  and  curses  of  humanity.  It  is  a 
bottomless  pit,  this  organism,  out  of  which 
issue  locusts  and  wild  beasts.  Thus  a  sin- 
ful human  society  carries  in  its  womb  a 
brutal  civilization,  and  this  evil  progeny, 
caught  up  into  the  current  of  a  divine  pro- 
vidence, commanded  by  a  divine  will,  and 
tempered  by  a  divine  mercy,  constitutes 
God's  punitive  instrumentality.  In  the 
ordinary  course  of  nature  the  development 
of  the  organism  of  divine  punishment  is  so 
slow,  and  the  span  of  the  divine  coordina- 
tion so  vast,  that  to  the  ancient  mind  it 
became  a  question  whether  God  did  take 
notice  of  sin.  We  see  these  doubts  taking 
root  in  the  mind  of  the  Psalmist,  till  he 
went  into  the  sanctuary  of  God ;  and  in 
Plutarch's  treatise  on  the  divine  punish- 
ment, in  which  he  undertakes  to  answer 
the  question  of  why  the  gods  are  so  slow 
in  visiting  crime,  we  find  the  same  ques- 
tion raised.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  every 
human  civilization  taken  in  grand  reaches 
illustrates  the  truth  that  man  himself  is  a 
co-worker  with  God  in  this  business.  The 
human  organism  is    not   only  to  a  large 


232  ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

degree  self-constructive,  but  self-rewarding 
and  self-punitive.  Thus  the  particular  form 
that  the  divine  penalty  assumes  is  largely- 
determined  by  the  organism  itself  acting 
under  God's  laws ;  yet  once  being  deter- 
mined, it  cannot  escape  coordination  with 
God's  providential  plan,  and  must  become, 
as  the  apostle  puts  it,  "  an  organ  of  the 
divine  wrath  fitted  unto  destruction."  In- 
deed, in  this  retroactive  sense  every  dark- 
est brutahty  is  ruled  and  utilized  by  God. 
Nor  was  the  Israelitish  development  an 
exception  to  this  general  rule.  The  natu- 
ral history  of  civilization  is  in  one  of  its 
large  aspects  a  natural  history  of  sin.  The 
Hebrew  nation  was  a  section  selected  from 
this  developing  natural  history  of  sin ;  it 
was  designed  to  illustrate  God's  uniform 
method  of  commanding  and  utilizing  or- 
ganisms of  sin  for  his  own  purposes  of 
salvation. 

The  fact  exists  in  nature ;  therefore  we 
find  this  same  fact  in  the  interpretative 
organism,  the  only  difference  being  that 
the  coordination  is  there  refracted  for  the 
eye  by  a  mechanical  type.  If  the  fact 
were  left  out,  then  the  organism  would  not 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.         233 

correspond  to  the  cosmos  which  it  was 
designed  to  interpret;  but,  because  it  is 
represented  by  a  mechanical  symbol,  the 
critics  of  to-day  too  often  misread  it,  de- 
claring that  it  represents  God  as  the  cause 
of  evil,  and  this  effect  the  critics  aver  to  be 
due  to  the  crude  spiritual  intelligence  of 
the  Hebrews.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  those 
cases  where  God  is  represented  as  sending 
a  lying  spirit  to  Ahab,  or  an  evil  spirit 
from  the  Lord  is  represented  as  possessing 
Saul,  or  when  certain  military  brutalities 
and  hardnesses  of  the  heart  are  recognized, 
permitted,  and  regulated,  and  even  utilized 
as  a  divine  chastisement,  we  are  told  that 
this  plainly  proves  the  admixture  of  error 
with  the  revelation.  A  juster  view  shows 
it  to  be  not  absolute  error,  but  refraction, 
caused  by  the  mechanical  coordination  of 
an  evil  thing  with  the  divine  symbol.  But 
the  truth  which  was  thus  radiated  from  the 
eternal  word,  and  which  then  became  cre- 
ative of  human  perception,  because  power- 
fully refracted,  remains  for  us,  namely,  that 
all  evil,  whether  personal  or  material,  is, 
notwithstanding  its  undivine  origin,  so  per- 
fectly coordinated  with  God  s  providence, 


234         ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

and    so   commanded  by   God's    resources, 
that  when   it    reaches   us   it    is   from    the 
Lord.     It  is  the  only  view  unitable  with 
Christ's    idea    of    righteousness.     On  any 
other    hypothesis    a    man's     environment 
often  becomes  positively  bereft  of  God,  so 
that  reciprocity  with  Him  through  the  body 
is   impossible.     From   this   point  of  view, 
however,  the  darkest  situation  becomes  the 
matrix  of  the   Holy  Spirit,  and  the  worst 
opportunity  becomes  a  strait  and  narrow 
way  that  leadeth  unto  life.     Nor  can  the 
fact  be   too  strongly  emphasized,   that  by 
this  very  refracting  process  the   more  spir- 
itual truth  has  been  conveyed  to  us.     For 
after  ages  of  perceptive  development  under 
Christ's  tuition,  and  particularly  after  long 
comparison  between  the  interpretative  or- 
ganism and  nature,  we  have  at  last  got  rid 
of   the   mechanical  effect   of   the   Hebrew 
organism  by  first  getting  rid  of  the  mechan- 
ical cast  in  our  own  perception.     We  now 
see  the  spiritual  nature  of  God's  coordina- 
tions, their  relation  to  human  liberty  —  the 
self-punitive  power  of  the  organism.     In- 
deed, so  plain  has  this  latter  fact  become  to 
us  that  we  too  often  miss  altogether  God's 


ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION.         235 

grasp  on  his  universe,  and  think  of  it  —  the 
organism  —  as  punishing  and  rewarding  it- 
self. We  thus  fashion  for  ourselves  a  cos- 
mic idol  which  often  seems  cruel,  meaning- 
less, malignant.  Like  the  ancient  idolaters, 
we  sometimes  worship,  sometimes  defy  our 
God,  while,  on  the  whole,  we  conceive  of 
human  life  as  a  battle  between  the  micro- 
cosmos  who  has  become  civilized  and  pious, 
and  the  macrocosmos  which  remains  blind 
and  hateful.  Better  were  it  to  see  God 
through  a  glass  darkly,  under  the  heavy 
refractive  effect  of  the  Hebrew  theocracy. 
It  would  be  at  least  formative  of  a  purer 
vision.  The  coordination  of  the  cosmic 
evil  with  God,  the  acceptance  of  it  by  Him 
as  a  part  of  his  plan,  is  certainly  a  fact  of 
nature.  It  is  the  mystery  in  nature  which 
the  eye  of  man,  unilluminated  by  God's 
word,  has  not  been  able  to  read  aright. 
Still  is  it  true  that  the  Lord  does  call 
forth  serpents  and  fiery  scorpions,  ay,  and 
locusts  of  the  human  kind.  Still  does  He 
turn  rivers  into  blood.  Still  does  He  hiss 
for  the  fly  that  is  in  the  uttermost  part  of 
the  river  of  Egypt.  Still  does  He  call 
for  the  loathsome  frogs,  the  darkness,  and 


236         ORGANISM  OF  REVELATION. 

the  noisome  plague,  and  still  out  of  the 
evil  organism  of  a  corrupt  civilization  do 
they  come,  even  all  hideous  and  noisome 
and  quick-breeding  evils,  at  the  divine  word 
to  chasten  the  nation  that  has  consciously 
departed  from  Him,  or  rejected  the  word 
of  his  prophets.  Still  is  it  true  that  lep- 
rosv  of  a  moral  and  social  kind  follows  on 
spiritual  presumption ;  that  moral  death 
and,  ultimately,  physical  destruction  follow 
hypocrisy  and  profanity.  Death  also  fol- 
lows the  neglect  to  obey  God's  sexual  law, 
which  was  typified  by  the  covenant  of  cir- 
cumcision. The  terrible  retroactive  law  of 
the  organism  still  exists.  The  sole  differ- 
ence between  our  time  and  the  Jewish  is 
that  the  coordination  of  retroactive  law 
with  God's  personality  was  then  mechan- 
ical, symbolic,  and,  of  course,  immediate. 
Now  the  law  is  quite  as  sure,  the  coordi- 
nation as  perfect,  and  the  punishment  as 
certain,  but  the  process  is  slow,  the  coordi- 
nation invisible,  and  the  punishment  often 
fails  of  recognition  for  want  of  spiritual 
insight.  We  see  the  "  Reign  of  Terror," 
but  do  not  trace  out  its  spiritual  causa- 
tion. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

CEREMONIALISM. 

A  SECOND  feature  of  the  Hebrew  reve- 
lation is  ceremonialism.  This  is  in  reality 
neither  more  nor  less  than  a  kind  of  sym- 
bolism. It  is  a  universal  method  of  spir- 
itual interpretation  for  the  psychic  man. 
It  is  based  on  the  fact,  already  elucidated, 
that  the  material  corresponds  to  the  spirit- 
ual so  as  to  be  its  type,  prophecy,  and 
medium  of  transmission.  Ceremonialism 
is,  therefore,  simply  the  endeavor  of  men 
who  feel  this  fact  to  select  and  utilize  the 
symbolism  of  nature,  and  thus  to  con- 
struct a  spiritualizing  environment  for  the 
masses,  —  a  matrix  of  spiritual  vitality.  It 
is,  in  fact,  an  allegory  or  drama  of  the  spir- 
itual life.  Our  modern  Salvation  Army  is 
a  form  of  ceremonialism ;  its  object  is  to 
surround  the  masses  with  a  vivid  drama  of 
the  spiritual  world,  more  particularly  its 
heroic   warfare,   strategy,    and    leadership. 


238  CEREMONIALISM. 

The  priest  with  his  robes,  altar,  candles, 
and  holy  water  constitutes  a  drama  of  the 
same  genus,  though  not  of  the  same 
species.  No  doubt,  ceremonialism  has  its 
limits,  just  as  legalism  does,  beyond  which 
it  becomes  unspiritual  and  even  immoral : 
it  may  be  substituted  for  a  higher  and  bet- 
ter force ;  it  may  be  obstinately  adhered 
to,  when  in  the  process  of  development  it 
should  give  way  to  a  better  organ ;  in  this 
case,  of  course,  it  becomes  a  stumbling- 
block  in  the  path  of  life.  Indeed,  its  law 
is  the  same  as  that  of  the  artistic  nature, — 
strict  subordination  to  the  advancing  needs 
of  the  spiritual  life.  When  it  becomes  an 
object  of  satisfaction  in  itself,  it  is  a  worth- 
less idol.  Indeed,  wherever  it  is  conducted 
to  the  neglect  of  the  spiritual  powers  them- 
selves, it  is  a  positive  injury,  and  may  well 
be  treated  as  Josiah  treated  the  brazen  ser- 
pent of  Moses. 

Modern  critics  assert  that  the  ceremo- 
nial system  of  Israel  belongs  to  a  later 
date  than  Moses.  Probably  this  is  true, 
so  far  as  the  elaboration  of  it  is  concerned. 
On  the  other  hand  there  is  evidence  that 
Abraham  strictly  enjoined  on  his  descend- 


CEREMONIALISM,  239 

ants  the  rite  of  circumcision.  It  was  not 
original  with  Abraham ;  it  had  been  prac- 
ticed by  other  nations ;  other  men  had 
sought  by  it  to  express  the  consecration 
of  the  reproductive  energy  to  God :  but  in 
the  case  of  a  man,  out  of  whose  loins  was 
to  spring  the  interpretative  organism  of 
the  race,  it  certainly  had  a  peculiar  sig- 
nificance, and  he  believed  it  to  have  been 
commanded  by  God  in  a  vision.  So,  at 
least,  we  are  told  in  one  of  the  accounts ; 
but,  whatever  may  be  the  truth  respecting 
this  or  the  other  record,  of  Abraham's 
bringing  with  him  into  Canaan  the  rite  of 
sacrifice  and  the  burnt-offering,  one  thing 
is  clear,  —  Moses  did  incorporate  circum- 
cision into  his  structure,  together  with 
the  beautiful  Passover  rite  that  signified 
so  much  to  Jesus,  and,  also,  the  institution 
of  the  Sabbath,  and  in  doing  so  he  im- 
planted the  germ  of  the  entire  system ;  for 
ceremonialism  is  not  a  mere  series  of  arti- 
ficial rites,  —  it  is  a  living  spiritualizing  force 
which  has  a  natural  rootage  in  the  soul  of 
man.  A  ritual  may  be  dead  in  a  given 
case,  I  admit ;  so  may  a  tree  or  flower,  but 
it  is  usually  a  product  of  life.     If  it  is  dead, 


240  CEREMONIALISM. 

it  is  because  something  has  killed  it.  The 
religious  ceremonial  of  a  people  is  like  its 
literature.  It  has  its  specific  germ  and 
law  of  development;  like  a  plant,  it  may- 
appropriate  foreign  elements,  but  if  it  be 
vital  it  will  always  subdue  them  to  its 
own  distinct  and  expanding  type.  Now, 
there  is  no  question  that  Moses  did  graft 
upon  Israel  a  specific  germ  of  symbolism 
or  ceremonialism.  Its  vitality  is  shown  in 
its  selective  force.  But  the  most  remark- 
able thing  about  it  was  its  spiritual  coher- 
ence ;  this  appears  in  the  institution  of  the 
Sabbath.  The  setting  apart  of  one  day 
from  secular  to  purely  spiritual  forms  is 
a  striking  symbol  of  that  spiritualization 
of  labor  which  constitutes  its  rest,  its  sanc- 
tification,  and  its  final  end.  In  a  perfected 
spiritual  life  all  labor  must  be  spiritualized, 
for  it  can  but  be  seen  and  pursued  in  refer- 
ence to  its  final  end ;  but  for  people  in  an 
unspiritual  stage  of  development  such  a 
ceremonial  as  the  setting  apart  of  a  day 
for  a  typical  Sabbath  is  of  the  utmost 
moral  value.  The  spiritual  fact  must  be 
presented  in  extenso,  under  a  ceremonial 
form,  before  it  can  be  grasped.     Thus  the 


CEREMONIALISM.  241 

holy  day  at  the  end  of  the  week  stands  as 
an  emblem  of  a  final  end  and  divine  rest 
for  man's  creative  secular  processes.  It  is 
noteworthy,  too,  that  this  positive  com- 
mand to  a  ceremonial  observance  stands 
in  the  midst  of  the  Decalogue,  along  with 
those  great  moral  and  spiritual  command- 
ments that  regulate  the  reciprocity  be- 
tween man  and  man,  and  between  man 
and  God. 

In  other  words,  we  have  a  ceremonial 
observance  implanted  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  fundamental  law  of  the  theocracy. 
But  reflection  shows  us  that  it  could  not 
be  otherwise,  for,  as  has  been  already  said, 
the  fundamental  law  itself  is  cast  in  a  ru- 
dimentary and  legal  form  and  is  closely 
coordinated  with  the  eye-for-an-eye  code. 
The  Mosaic  law  is  a  uniform  structure  of 
legality,  and  legality  is  the  rudimentary 
symbolic  form  of  law ;  it  is,  itself,  the 
product  of  a  symbolizing  force.  Ceremo- 
nialism is  but  the  next  step,  and  a  neces- 
sary step,  too ;  for,  as  you  carry  legality 
upward  to  its  final  and  spiritual  end,  that 
end  must  be  presented  under  the  form 
of  an  emblem,  and  its  practical  relations 


242  CEREMONIALISM.^ 

under  the  form  of  typical  observances.  The 
legalizing  principle  in  man  is,  in  the  em- 
bryonic stage,  perfectly  normal,  provided 
it  works  in  a  spiritual  direction.  It  then 
becomes  a  spiritualizing  process,  and  as 
it  feels  its  way  God  ward  it  must  inevi- 
tably supplement  itself  with  symbolism. 
Ceremonialism  will  appear  at  the  centre, 
like  the  nucleus  in  an  ^^^,  Thus,  as  the 
Mosaic  code  attempts  to  coordinate  human 
life  and  conduct  with  the  idea  of  God,  it 
must  have  something  formal,  something- 
corresponding  with  its  own  structure,  to 
represent  that  idea ;  nay,  more,  if  the 
process  is  to  be  educative  and  introspec- 
tive, as  it  should  be  in  order  to  spirit- 
ualize, then  there  must  be  at  the  centre 
not  only  an  emblem,  but  an  expansive 
one,  —  a  type  capable  of  deep  rootage  in 
man's  soul,  of  large  unfoldings  and  rich 
fruitage.  Furthermore,  the  emblem  must 
illuminate  the  points  of  correspondence 
between  God  and  man.  The  human  soul 
is  feeling  after  God,  if  haply  it  may  find 
Him.  The  interpretative  organism  should, 
therefore,  lead  the  human  soul  by  suggest- 
ing the  points  of  correspondence  which  are 


CEREMONIALISM.  243 

dimly  felt  by  the  soul  itself.  The  imma- 
nence of  God  must  needs  be  represented 
by  a  house  of  God  among  human  habita- 
tions, bringing  out  the  fact  that  God  is 
resident  with  us.  His  spiritual  transcend- 
ence must  be  figured  by  a  remote  and  in- 
violable shrine;  the  differentiation  between 
soul  and  spirit,  —  especially  where  the  soul 
is  defiled  through  sin,  —  by  a  ceremonial 
division  between  the  holy  and  the  profane. 
That  which  is  fit  for  coordination  with  the 
spiritual  must  appear  under  the  symbol 
of  cleanness  ;  that  which  is  unfit,  as  un- 
cleanness.  But  the  main  feature  in  a  cere- 
monial system,  provided  its  tendency  be 
spiritual,  must  of  course  consist  in  bring- 
ing out  the  eirenicon^  or  mediating  agent 
between  matter  and  spirit,  namely,  the  con- 
secrated word,  or  immanent  personality. 

Here  we  have  the  great  law  of  revela- 
tion and  spiritual  genesis.  If  the  world  is 
at  any  point  coordinated  with  God,  it  is 
because  some  exceptional  personality,  tak- 
ing fast  hold  on  men  and  facts  in  the  full- 
ness of  his  psychic  life,  has  drawn  them 
Godward  and  spiritward  by  the  stern  sub- 
jection of  his  own  soul  and  body  to  the 


244  CEREMONIALISM. 

offices  of  the  divine  spirit.  Thus  he  has 
become  a  mediator,  through  whom  the  di- 
vine life  radiates  and  touches  men,  beget- 
ting in  them  the  divine  hkeness.  Every 
such  mediator  stands,  as  it  were,  in  the 
divine  sanctuary.  Thither,  also,  even  to 
the  altar  of  God  does  he  lead  with  stern 
though  joyful  constraint  his  own  body, 
that,  sacrificing  his  animal  life  to  God,  yea, 
pouring  it  out  as  it  w^re  before  God,  he 
may  be  freely  and  entirely  used  by  the  di- 
vine spirit  for  the  purposes  of  reconcilia- 
tion; and  always  the  reconciliation  is  the 
entire  process  by  which  man,  under  lib- 
erty, is  brought  into  correspondence  to 
God,  and  into  absolute  harmony  with  the 
divine  will.  Now,  as  I  say,  there  can  be 
no  kind  of  question  that  Moses  planted 
the  germ  of  this  tendency  to  feel  after 
God  and  find  Him  through  symbolism. 
Without  such  a  process  his  legal  structure 
would  have  had  no  core;  it  would  have 
been  impotent  and  valueless  as  an  inter- 
pretative organism,  for  it  would  have  been 
coordinated  with  nothing. 

There  is  fair  evidence,  too,  that  the  ac- 
count   is    correct    which    represents    the 


CEREMONIALISM.  245 

germ  as  having  been  given  to  a  special 
body  of  men,  Aaron  and  his  descendants, 
for  protection  and  cultivation.  It  is,  in- 
deed, tolerably  clear  that  Moses  left  a  liv- 
ing stem  of  ceremonialism  (at  all  events 
he  implanted  a  prolific  germ  of  it  in  the 
Decalogue) ;  but  the  elements  of  that  sym- 
bolism were  not  original  with  him.  The 
temple,  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  the  veil, 
the  priesthood,  the  sacrifices,  and  even  the 
Sabbath  itself,  were  forms  that  already  ex- 
isted in  other  nations;  other  souls  than  the 
Hebrew  had  felt  after  God  with  them. 
The  characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  ceremo- 
nial is,  not  the  originality  of  its  forms,  but 
the  extraordinary  spiritual  vitality  by  which 
those  forms  were  seized,  selected  out  of  the 
ceremonial  of  other  peoples,  purified  from 
their  filth  and  distortions,  and  built  into 
the  distinct  type  of  Hebrew  spirituality. 
In  short,  their  authority  does  not  rest 
upon  their  Mosaic  origin,  or  upon  any  ex- 
traneous proof  of  their  supernaturalism, 
but  on  the  intrinsic  spirituality  and  revela- 
tory power  imparted  to  them  by  the  He- 
brew organism  itself ;  and  this  leads  us  to 
the  point,  that  the  Hebrew  law  was  not  a 


246  CEREMONIALISM. 

mere  mechanical  scaffolding  handed  down 
by  external  authority :  it  was  a  living  struc- 
ture, closely  connected  at  all  times  with  a 
highly  organized  centre  of  vitality.  Thus, 
like  the  teeth  or  bones  of  the  human  body, 
it  was  constantly  acted  upon,  built  up  and 
modified,  by  the  life.  That  life  was  vested 
in  the  prophets,  and  their  position  with 
reference  to  the  law  has  been  greatly  mis- 
conceived. It  has  been  held  that  they 
antagonized  the  priests  and  their  code. 
The  study  of  the  life  of  Samuel,  who 
founded  the  schools  of  the  prophets, 
shows  how  false  is  this  position.  Samuel 
was  brought  up  in  the  Lord's  house,  was 
from  a  child  attached  to  its  ceremonial, 
and  united  in  himself  the  two  offices.  The 
antagonism  referred  to  appears  in  his  case, 
it  is  true,  but  it  is  not  antagonism  to  the 
ceremonial,  which  he  defended  against 
Saul  with  extreme  severity,  but  against 
the  insubordination  of  it,  and  particularly 
its  substitution  for  obedience  and  faith.-^ 

It  was  this  very  warfare  of  the  prophets 
—  a  warfare  like  that  of  the  true  poet  or 
artist  against  the  mechanical  and  sensual 

^  I  Sam.  xiii.  9-15  ;  also  xv.  22,  23. 


CEREMONIALISM.  247 

tendency  of  art  or  literature — that  did  the 
most  for  the  ceremonial  code ;  it  kept  the 
ceremonial  subordinated  to  spiritual  life, 
and  undoubtedly  tended  to  expand  it,  for 
the  prophetic  utterances  are  full  of  par- 
allelisms and  illustrations  drawn  from  the 
priests'  code :  they  are  poems  written 
upon  the  same  theme,  and  must  have  con- 
tributed not  only  to  purify  but  also  to  en- 
rich it  by  keeping  it  face  to  face  with  its 
spiritual  ideals  and  applications.  There 
has  been  much  investigation  as  to  the 
original  meaning  of  the  various  rites,  but 
nothing  is  more  evident  than  that  their 
incorporation  into  the  Hebrew  type  both 
purified  them  from  many  distortions  and 
developed  in  them  a  new  spiritual  signifi- 
cance. They  were  the  thoughts  of  men 
regarding  God ;  in  the  Hebrew  economy 
they  were  expanded  into  larger  intelligi- 
bility, just  as  the  w^ord  of  a  primitive  lan- 
guage takes  on  a  richer  and  more  precise 
meaning  when  it  is  incorporated  into  a 
highly  civilized  tongue. 

So  it  was  in  regard  to  animal  sacrifices ; 
it  is  impossible  to  tell  precisely  what  they 
meant  at  the  beginning.     Doubtless  their 


248  CEREMONIALISM. 

significance  was  too  vague  for  definition. 
Men  dimly  perceived  the  Psyche  or  soul 
of  the  beast :  this  thing  called  life  struck 
them  with  awe  as  related  to  the  gods ; 
therefore  the  taking  of  it,  even  from  an 
animal,  was  a  sacred  act,  a  divine  sacrifice. 
There  was  no  such  thing  as  secular  butch- 
ery ;  an  animal  was  killed  before  the  gods, 
and  eaten  on  shares  with  God  as  a  divine 
communion.  Gradually  there  developed, 
as  we  see  in  Homier,  the  idea  of  an  atone- 
ment. This,  too,  was  a  vague  idea;  the 
human  soul  was  reaching  after  something, 
it  knew  not  what.  A  sacrificial  relation- 
ship of  the  animal  life  was  dimly  seen ; 
particularly  the  pouring  out  of  the  blood, 
in  which  the  life  was  immanent,  was  felt 
to  be  significant  of  a  relation  between  man 
and  God.  It  was  but  natural,  therefore, 
that  in  the  Hebrew  organism,  where  the 
points  of  man's  correspondence  to  God 
were  specially  brought  out,  and  where  the 
sacrificial  word  or  life  of  God  was  a  matter 
of  daily  consciousness,  where  the  man  of 
the  word  felt  himself  called  upon  to  strug- 
gle with  God,  to  weep  and  suffer  with  God 
over  the  sins  of  the  people,  —  it  is  not  won- 


CEREMONIALISM.  249 

derful,  I  say,  that  in  such  an  organism 
animal  sacrifices  should  have  a  new  sig- 
nificance ;  nor,  if  the  story  of  Moses  be  at 
all  correct,  and  he  himself  was  the  first 
o-reat  fellow-sufferer  with  God   under  the 

o  .  .  .  ~ 

sin  of  Israel,  is  it  strange  that  this  signifi- 
cance should  have  been  revealed  to  him, 
and  entered  profoundly  into  his  idea  of  the 
ceremonial.  It  is  but  natural,  surely,  that 
he  who  founded  the  law  and  literature 
should  have  conceived  of  the  great  motif 
of  the  sacrificial  drama. 

Certain  it  is  that  this  motif  soon  be- 
came apparent  to  the  greater  souls  among 
the  Hebrews.  Thus  one  of  their  prophets 
cries  out,  "Sacrifice  and  burnt -offering 
thou  wouldst  not,  but  a  body  hast  thou 
prepared  me.  Lo,  I  come  to  do  thy  will,  O 
my  God."  David  has  a  growing  concep- 
tion of  himself  as  reaching  true  kingship 
through  suffering.  He  is  God's  sacrificial 
victim ;  yet  this  process  does  not  seem  to 
be  completed  with  himself,  —  it  is  to  be  at- 
tained only  by  his  posterity.  Carried  into 
ecstasy,  he  discerns  the  fruit  of  his  loins 
as  the  Lord's  Anointed,  triumphant,  attain- 
ing to  an  immortal  kingship  through  suf- 


250  CEREMONIALISM, 

fering,  and  so  cries  out  in  his  vision, 
"  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  Sheol, 
neither  wilt  thou  suffer  thy  Holy  One  to 
see  corruption."  So,  too,  another  great 
prophet,  discerning  through  this  ceremo- 
nial typology  the  significance  of  sacrifice, 
—  seeing  how  plainly  history  corresponded 
to  it,  how  the  spiritualizing  head  of  the 
race  must  needs  suffer  for  the  race,  and 
how  his  sufferings  must  be  the  matrix  of  a 
new  conscience,  —  cries  out  concerning  the 
coming  nian  of  God,  "  He  is  led  as  a  lamb 
to  the  slaughter,  for  the  transgression  of 
my  people  was  he  stricken."  Indeed,  the 
Hebrew  ceremonial  was  continually  to  the 
prophets  a  spiritual  lens,  a  medium  of  sug- 
gestion. Nor  is  anything  more  wonderful 
than  the  final  form  that  the  Hebrew  cere- 
monial assumed.  It  became,  indeed,  as 
Jesus  declared,  a  prophecy  of  what  the 
Christ,  the  ideal  Head,  must  be.  It  was 
a  moral  miracle;  the  shockingly  distorted 
forms  of  the  pagan  ritual,  selected,  puri- 
fied, combined,  and  vitalized  by  the  priest- 
hood of  Israel  under  the  influence  of 
the  prophets,  became  a  holy  temple  of 
the    Lord,    a  "  pattern     of    things    in    the 


CEREMONIALISM.  25 1 

heavens,"  —  a  revelation,  not  of  the  iso- 
lated divine  personality,  but  of  humanity, 
developing  into  correspondence  with  God 
and  inhabited  by  the  eternal  spirit.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceive  of  a  more  beautiful 
or  touching  representation.  There  was  the 
outer  court,  in  which  priests  and  people 
met,  a  type  of  that  organic  collectivism 
through  which  God  spiritualizes  men  by 
coordinating  them  as  branches  about  spir- 
itual stems ;  a  type,  also,  of  that  meeting- 
place  between  the  religious  and  the  secu- 
lar by  which  the  latter  is  made  whole. 
For  what,  after  all,  are  these  mediating 
priests  but  shadows  of  that  heavenly  man- 
hood, that  stronger,  holier  brotherhood, 
which  God  stores  up  for  us  from  age  to 
age  in  those  sacred  souls  who  support  us 
in  our  trials  and  lift  us  Godward,  as  the 
oak-tree  does  the  branches  ?  and  what  is 
that  slain  sacrifice  but  a  type  of  that 
bodily  life  ever  and  anon  given  up  into 
God  s  hands  by  some  saviour  of  the  race 
to  meet  our  spiritual  necessities  ?  and  what 
is  this  shrine,  with  golden  candlestick, 
table  of  shewbread,  and  altar  of  frankin- 
cense,   but    the    soul    or   psyche    of    man, 


252  CEREMONIALISM. 

lighted  up  to  itself  by  some  priest  or  hero 
of  divine  love,  awakened  also  to  its  need 
of  God's  bread,  and  by  that  same  self-illu- 
mination discovering  that  bread  already 
provided?  nothing  less,  in  fact,  than  the 
Lord's  own  human  love,  freely  offered,  as 
counterpart  to  which  comes  that  other 
great  self -discovery,  namely,  an  inward 
altar  of  joy  and  praise,  whose  odors  of 
frankincense  may  well  be  called  costly, 
since  the  humble  thanksgiving  of  the  man 
is  kindled  by  the  infinite  sacrifice  of  the 
heavenly  Father.  Thus  is  the  human 
soul,  as  it  enters  into  correspondence  with 
God,  renewed,  purified,  opened  up  to  it- 
self, filled  with  sweetness,  satisfaction,  and 
light.  Furthermore,  this  Holy  of  Holies, 
what  is  it  but  the  spirit,  that  innermost 
and  most  sacred  chamber  of  our  being, 
seldom  visited,  veiled  to  the  masses,  dis- 
covered only  to  the  heroes,  turned  by  some 
into  a  citadel  of  pride,  by  others  into  a 
shrine  of  self,  but  silently  purified  and  set 
in  order  by  the  effect  of  divine  revelation 
on  the  true  worshiper,  and  unveiled  at  last 
to  mankind  by  the  greatest  of  all  sacri- 
ficial   heroes    and    revelators,  who   by  his 


CEREMONIALISM.  253 

life  and  death  made  the  innermost  and 
heavenliest  to  stand  forth  clear  in  flesh 
and  blood,  and  so  led  us  tenderly  into  the 
sanctuary  of  his  spirit,  showing  us  at  the 
same  time  what  our  own  innermost  nature 
shall  become  when  the  shrine  is  unveiled, 
stripped  of  self,  transformed  into  the  treas- 
ure-house of  God's  law,  a  throne  of  his 
merciful  presence,  a  dwelling-place  of  his 
ineffable  light  ? 


CHAPTER  XV. 

MIRACLES. 

Obviously  the  paramount  feature  of  the 
Hebrew  revelation  is  its  peculiar  super- 
naturalism.  I  call  it  peculiar  because  it  is 
not  the  kind  with  which  the  modern  world 
has  been  familiar ;  indeed,  it  is  because  they 
are  contrary  to  modern  experience  that 
we  have  been  inclined  to  reject  the  mira- 
cles of  the  Old  Testament,  and  with  them 
supernaturalism  in  general,  on  the  ground 
that  the  two  are  identical ;  but  there  is  a 
sharp  distinction  to  be  drawn  between  the 
supernatural  and  the  miraculous.  Accord- 
ing to  some  of  our  ablest  philosophers,  the 
spiritual  is  the  supernatural.  This  is  un- 
doubtedly the  position  of  Jesus  and  of  the 
New  Testament  writers.  In  Christ's  teach- 
ing, matter  and  spirit  correspond  to  one 
another;  the  material  forces  are  correlated 
with  the  spiritual;  the  two  are  interpen- 
etrable.     Any  coordination,    therefore,    of 


MIRACLES.  255 

material  forces  with  spiritual,  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  exhibit  the  power  of  mind,  is 
supernatural ;  in  fact  Jesus  was  continu- 
ally endeavoring  to  point  out  that  faith  in 
God  was  supernatural,  —  more  particularly 
the  triumph  of  faith  over  matter  —  as  in 
the  bearing  of  one's  cross.  Paul  declared 
that  love  was  the  highest  supernatural 
gift  of  the  Spirit.  Again,  as  to  the 
divine  supernaturalism,  Jesus  testified  that 
it  was  everywhere  present.  Nothing  oc- 
curred, not  even  the  fall  of  a  sparrow, 
that  was  not  taken  up  by  God,  and 
so  coordinated  with  his  spirit  as  to  be 
significant  of  his  mind  and  productive 
of  his  will.  Jesus  also  taught  that  man 
was  the  coordinating  agent  of  God  upon 
earth,  and  that  through  him,  develop- 
ing into  correspondence  with  God,  and 
so  working  more  and  more  with  God, 
there  was  to  be  an  ever -increasing  co- 
ordination of  earthly  forms  with  God,  —  an 
advancing  spiritualization  or  supernatural- 
ization  of  the  material  world.  And  if  we 
study  carefully  his  discourses  to  his  dis- 
ciples in  regard  to  this  process,  which  he 
styled  the  coming  of  the  kingdom,  we  are 


256  MIRACLES. 

compelled  to  infer  that  he  looked  upon 
it  as  certain  to  be,  until  its  climacteric, 
very  unlike  a  miracle,  but  rather  like  the 
growth  of  the  seed  in  the  field,  or  the 
leaven  in  the  lump,  an  exceedingly  grad- 
ual and  comprehensible  process,  —  man's 
soul  slowly  discovering  the  spiritual  po- 
tencies and  completing  the  coordinations 
that  were  involved  in  the  kingdom  of  God, 
and  thus  advancing  to  complete  super- 
naturalization,  along  the  pathway  of  natu- 
ral law,  by  so  gentle  a  grade  that  the 
supernatural  should  not  seem  at  all  alien 
to  our  earthly  nature. 

Undoubtedly  it  is  this  kind  of  super- 
naturalism, —  that  of  the  sunshine,  the  dew, 
and  the  lilies,  that  of  the  still  small  voice, 
and  that  of  Christ's  influence  (for  we  rec- 
ognize these  as  all  standing  together  in 
one  group),  —  it  is  this  divinely  human  su- 
pernaturalism,  I  say,  with  which  every 
Christian  is  familiar,  not  because  it  has 
been  proved  to  him,  but  because  Christ 
has  given  him  eyes  to  see  it.  It  is  this 
which  lies  back  of  all  evolution,  making 
evolution  itself  even  more  wonderfully  su- 
pernatural than  the  old  conception  of  crea- 


MIRACLES.  257 

tion.  If  we  were  to  select  a  word  by  which 
to  designate  this  as  a  whole,  it  would  be  the 
word  "organic,"  since  it  is  its  character- 
istic that  it  is  manifested  only  in  connec- 
tion with  organs.  True,  it  may  be  poured 
out  with  sudden  fullness,  as  the  life  is 
poured  out  upon  the  trees  with  the  sun- 
shine of  the  spring  tide,  but  that  is  be- 
cause the  organism  is  ready  for  it.  In 
short,  it  may  be  called  organic  because, 
like  all  life,  it  corresponds  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  organism  and  has  no  mani- 
festation without   it. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  miracle  is  a  mani- 
festation of  the  supernatural  that  does  not 
perceptibly  correspond  to  the  organism ; 
for  instance,  the  sudden  turning  of  the 
Nile  into  blood.  That  phenomenon,  as 
recorded  in  the  Bible,  professed  to  be  the 
immediate  effect  of  the  divine  spirit  on 
nature ;  but  as  we  are  not  familiar  in  our 
own  experience  with  any  such  causative 
mental  force,  or  any  such  degree  of  cor- 
relation between  mind  and  matter,  it  is  to  us 
a  miracle.  This  is  undoubtedly  what  men 
mean  when  they  say  a  miracle  is  contrary 
to  natural  law,  or  to  evolution.     We  know 


258  MIRACLES. 

very  little  about  natural  law  and  very  little 
about  evolution ;  we  have  only  just  begun 
to  study  these  subjects :  but  we  know  well 
enough  when  a  reputed  supernatural  event 
does  not  correspond  to  the  organism  of 
nature,  so  far  as  it  falls  within  our  observa- 
tion. If  a  fact  narrated  in  the  Hebrew 
Scripture  corresponds  to  nature  as  it  de- 
velops before  our  eyes,  then  nature  is  a 
witness  to  the  credibility  of  the  story; 
otherwise  the  testimony  must  be  strong 
enough  to  overcome  this  apparent  want  of 
correspondence  with  nature,  and  as  nature 
now  to  most  scientists  means  evolution, 
anything  that  does  not  correspond  to  that 
must  necessarily  to  their  minds  require  a 
compensating  degree  of  testimony.  This 
is  reasonable.  When  Lobenguela  was  told 
by  his  envoys,  on  their  return  from  Eng- 
land, that  they  had  crossed  the  water  in 
an  iron  ship,  he  did  not  believe  it,  on  their 
unsupported  testimony,  because  it  did  not 
correspond  to  the  organism  of  nature,  as 
he  had  observed  it,  that  iron  should  float ; 
and  his  position  is  exactly  that  of  those 
who  object  to  the  miracles  of  the  Old 
Testament.     The  position  is  entirely  logi- 


MIRACLES.  259 

cal  up  to  a  certain  point.  Nature,  cer- 
tainly, whether  we  view  her  from  the  stand- 
point of  naturaHsm  or  supernaturalism,  is 
uniform.  God's  method,  as  pointed  out 
by  Christ  or  by  the  evolutionist,  is  slow 
and  educative ;  even  the  most  amazing 
results  are  brought  about  by  gradually  de- 
veloping correspondences.  Unfortunately, 
however,  for  the  practical  operation  of  Lo- 
benguela's  logic,  the  greatest  philosopher 
is  liable,  like  him,  to  be  limited  in  his 
range  of  observation;  correspondences  may 
exist  of  which  he  has  not  taken  note,  and, 
while  the  great  correlations  of  the  uni- 
verse remain  the  same,  their  actual  coordi- 
nations may  vary  so  greatly  as  to  change 
the  outward  aspect  of  the  organism  alto- 
gether, so  that  what  in  one  age  or  locality 
seems  miraculous  should  in  another,  or  in 
a  different  stage  of  apprehension,  seem  no 
more  so  than  an  ordinary  event.  In  other 
words,  the  miraculous  is  wholly  relative  to 
our  perception.  It  is  a  miracle  simply 
because  we  do  not  see  the  organism  to 
which  it  corresponds. 

Indeed,  it  is  a  curious  fact  that  at  the 
present  day  our  more  extended  observa- 


26o  MIRACLES. 

tion  of  occult  phenomena  has  brought  out 
exactly  the  opposite  objection  to  the  mira- 
cles of  the  Bible.  The  gist  of  this  posi- 
tion is  that  the  miracles  amount  to  nothing 
as  divine  manifestations,  because  they  cor- 
respond to  the  phenomena  of  hypnotism, 
and  so  really  turn  out  to  be  simply  a 
phase  of  evolution.  This  is  undoubtedly 
the  side  to  which  the  whole  argument 
against  miracles  will  ultimately  shift,  and, 
though  there  is  an  element  of  error  in  it, 
it  is  not  altogether  wide  of  the  mark.  As 
to  the  main  point,  that  the  miracles  are 
not  a  defiance  of  nature,  but  have  a  basis 
in  the  structure  of  things,  there  can,  I 
think,  be  no  doubt.  Indeed,  it  is  a  curi- 
ous fact  that  the  Scriptures,  studied  in  the 
light  of  the  latest  modern  investigations, 
do  unquestionably  present  this  idea.  It  is 
now  established  as  firmly  as  almost  any 
scientific  fact  that  there  is  a  wonder-work- 
ing power  in  the  human  sou]  by  which  it 
is  able  to  see  visions,  to  project  phantasms, 
to  induce  a  state  of  ecstasy  or  vision  in 
other  persons,  and  even  to  cause  physical 
chanQ:es,  such  as  cures,  or  scars  like  the 
stigmata  of  St.  Francis.    There  have  doubt- 


MIRACLES.  261 

less  been  many  illusions  and  impostures, 
but  there  is  a  residuum  of  scientifically 
observed  facts  sufficient  to  establish  the 
wonders  of  hypnotism.  This  term  has  dis- 
agreeable associations,  and  in  reality  it  ex- 
plains nothing  ;  but,  coming  from  the  word 
"sleep,"  it  suggests  much,  as,  for  instance, 
that  this  peculiar  human  supernaturalism, 
as  Coleridge  would  call  it,  may  be  devel- 
oped by  throwing  the  practical  faculties 
into  repose  or  passivity. 

In  a  scientific  book,  entitled  "  The  Law 
of  Psychic  Phenomena,"  the  author  clas- 
sifies the  miracles  of  Scripture  with  hyp- 
notic phenomena,  and  after  an  exhaustive 
discussion  of  present  theories  he  advances 
a  hypothesis.  There  are,  according  to  him, 
a  subjective  and  an  objective  mind.  The 
objective  mind  conveys  a  suggestion  to 
the  subjective,  which  is  the  eternal  tran- 
scendent self.  By  this  process  the  sub- 
jective mind  is  brought  into  a  state  of 
exaltation,  which  radiates  outward  through 
the  brain  and  nervous  system,  and  thus 
the  hypnotic  effect  is  produced.  The 
phantasm  is  a  real  entity,  inasmuch  as  it 
is  a   projection    or   subtle    materialization 


262  MIRA  CLES. 

of  the  entire  exalted  organism.  Of  course 
it  is  not  necessary  to  assume  that  this 
formulation  of  the  hypnotic  law  is  final, 
but  it  is  probably  correct  as  far  as  it 
goes;  and,  in  general  outline,  this  divi- 
sion of  the  mind  into  subjective  and  ob- 
jective corresponds  to  the  soul  and  spirit 
of  Scripture,  So,  also,  this  hypnotic  law 
corresponds  to  Christ's  great  law  of  reve- 
lation through  the  subordination  of  the 
Logos  to  the  Spirit ;  while  the  idea  of  the 
ghost  or  phantasm,  being  an  actual  projec- 
tion or  radiation  of  the  personality,  uniting 
in  Itself  the  transcendent  element  of  the 
spirit  and  the  material  element  of  the 
Psyche,  is  singularly  correspondent  to 
Christ's  idea  of  the  radiated  spirit,  which 
did  to  the  disciples  assume  the  phantasmal 
form  of  fiery  tongues,  and  to  Jesus  himself 
the  semblance  of  a  dove.  Nor  does  there 
seem  to  be  any  question  that  the  state  of 
ecstasy  has  followed  this  law ;  for  if  we 
study  the  notable  instances  of  it,  from  the 
visions  of  the  apostles  down  to  that  of  the 
maiden  of  Lourdes,  including  the  cases  of 
Joan  of  Arc  and  Savonarola,  George  Fox 
and  Whitfield,  the  process  is  always  the 


MIRACLES.  263 

same.  Such  things  come  not  to  a  man 
while  his  objective  mind  is  absorbed  with 
practical  ways  and  means.  They  do  not 
come  to  those  people  who  have  nothing 
but  the  objective  or  practical  mind.  They 
come  to  the  man  of  large  or  high  sensi- 
bility at  some  moment  when  his  objective 
mind  is  forced  back  in  helplessness,  or 
withdrawn  in  voluntary  contemplation,  so 
as  to  become  the  channel  of  the  unseen. 
Then  first  the  spirit,  if  it  be  strong  and 
rational,  catches  the  blessed  light  of  eter- 
nity, and  is  exalted  by  it  into  fearless  joy. 
Following  that  vision,  the  brain  and  nerv- 
ous centres  are  carried  to  a  state  of  exalta- 
tion, the  heart  beats  high,  the  lungs  breathe 
more  deeply,  the  circulation  quickens,  the 
whole  physical  man  is  an  electric  battery, 
every  nervous  ganglion  charged  to  the  ut- 
most with  magnetic  force.  Thus  the  body 
is  turned  into  a  perfect  medium,  and  the 
spirit  materializes  itself. 

But,  setting  Mr.  Hudson's  book  one  side, 
if  we  put  together  the  Old  Testament  docu- 
ments, accordinof  to  the  best  evidence,  we 
find  that  they  contain  the  story  of  the  de- 
velopment of  a  vast  organism  for  the  gen- 


264  MIR  A  CLES. 

eration  of  psychic  phenomena.  The  whole 
process  is  genetic.  There  is  no  violent 
leap.  Consider,  in  the  first  place,  the  start- 
ing-point of  the  Hebrew  revelations,  —  the 
Accadian  empire,  the  twentieth  century 
before  Christ.  Human  thought  was  but 
little  occupied  with  the  mechanical  or 
philosophical  structure  of  nature.  It  was 
her  symbolism,  her  mystical  language,  with 
which  men's  souls  were  taken  up.  In  Urof 
the  Chaldees,  a  great  theocratic  cosmic  re- 
ligion prevailed.  There  was  little  religious 
liberty :  men's  minds  were  moulded  by  a 
gigantic  symbolism ;  all  their  actions  were 
governed  by  oracles,  seers,  and  priestly 
interpretations  of  that  shadowy  life  that 
hovered  within  the  veil  of  nature.  The 
psychic  sensibility  was  at  the  flood -tide. 
The  spiritual  was,  indeed,  but  feebly  de- 
veloped ;  yet  the  animal  man  possessed  so 
much  of  vague,  undeveloped  spiritual  in- 
stinct that  he  nestled  toward  the  brooding 
divine  life  as  the  fledgeling  creeps  under 
the  wing  of  the  mother  bird.  Doubtless 
this  feeling  after  God  was  largely  for  self- 
ish ends,  such  as  protection  and  individual 
guidance ;   none  the  less,  however,  was  it 


MIRACLES.  265 

urgent,  as    we   see   in    the   old  Accadian 
hymns ;  and,  in  the  absence  of  something 
better,    it   had    naturally    resulted    in    the 
development   of    this    hypnotic  power,  of 
trances  and  ecstasies.     But  the  visions  of 
God  were   distorted,   for  the   eye   of  man 
was  evil.     We  see  this  as  we  contemplate 
the  fragments  of  Accadian  literature  that 
have  come  down  to  us.     The  sensibility  of 
the  heart  was  fixed  upon  animal  pleasure : 
it  shrank  from  a  spiritual  deity ;  it  felt  the 
antagonism   of   the  spirit  to  the  flesh;   it 
drew  back  from  the  law  of  spiritual  evolu- 
tion ;    it  dreaded  the  power  that  formed 
conscience ;  it  did  not  like  to  retain  such 
a   God  in  its  mind.     Yet  it  clung  to  the 
psychic    relation    with    God;    it    yearned 
after  a  passional  animal  deity  akin  to  it- 
self.     By    a    false    refraction,   through    its 
own  perverted  perception,  it  changed  the 
o-lory    of    the    incorruptible  God    into    an 
image  or  conception  of  its  own.     It  found 
what   it  was  looking  for;   then  it  divided 
the   brooding  divine    life,  which   it   could 
but  feel,  into  cosmic  gods  and   into  tute- 
lary passional  local  deities,  each  having  its 
shrine,  its  coterie  of  priests    and   rhapso- 


266  MIRACLES. 

dists,  clairvoyants,  wonder-workers,  who 
overdid  their  work  and  turned  vision  into 
frenzy.  Thus,  along  with  the  natural  de- 
velopment of  seership,  there  came  to  be 
a  disease  of  the  soul  called  demoniac  pos- 
session, an  epidemic  of  occultism,  in  which 
the  faculties  were  helpless  under  the  influ- 
ence of  an  evil  psychism,  and  were  swayed 
by  a  bestial  exaltation. 

Out  of  the  midst  of  this  spiritual  tyranny, 
distortion,  and  disease  emerges  Abraham, 
a  man  of  unusual  vitality.  He,  too,  is  a 
seer,  but  his  vision  is  that  of  one  living 
and  true  God.  His  first  vision  has  in  it 
a  distinctly  spiritual  conception,  namely, 
that  through  sacrifice,  by  separation  from 
kindred,  by  pilgrimage  in  an  unknown 
land,  he  is  to  become  God's  instrument 
of  blessing  to  the  race.  He  goes  out,  not 
knowing  whither,  depending  upon  the  sug- 
gestion of  his  God.  The  new  spiritual 
organ  in  him  seeks  an  environment  suit- 
able to  it.  His  strong  practical  facul- 
ties are  subordinated  to  this  necessity. 
He  depends  for  the  initiation  of  his  ac- 
tion upon  visions  and  divine  providences, 
which  are  in  themselves  suggestive  coordi- 


MIRACLES.  267 

nations;  he  is  led  into  Canaan  by  this 
process.  Here  he  wanders  about  in  a 
nomadic  Hfe ;  each  place  of  his  habitation 
turned  into  a  symbol  of  the  divine  pres- 
ence by  some  striking  vision,  and  by  a 
group  of  events  associated  with  that  vision, 
these  successive  groups  constituting  a 
progressive  revelation  of  his  God.  Thus 
the  spiritual  organ  survives  and  develops 
into  correspondence  to  its  environment. 
During  all  this  time  he  is  sustained  by 
the  promise  of  a  child ;  it  is  not  fulfilled 
till  he  is  a  hundred  years  old,  but  in  the 
mean  time  his  subjective  mind  has  been 
led  by  visions,  and  fed  and  moulded  by 
divine  providences,  until  it  has  become  the 
mighty  overshadowing  force  of  his  person- 
ality, and  the  son  born  to  him  in  his  old 
age  is  the  heir  of  this  specific  develop- 
ment. Faith,  with  Isaac,  is  an  instinct  of 
self-preservation.  He  clings  to  God  like 
a  gray  moth  to  a  gray  tree.  Now,  this 
process  goes  on  with  that  Hebrew  stock 
for  four  or  five  hundred  years,  increas- 
ing all  the  time  in  Abraham's  line,  this 
peculiar  function  of  the  soul,  or  Pysche, 
making  it  more  and  more  the  passive  in- 


268  MIR  A  CLES. 

strument  of  suggestion,  raising  the  spirit 
to  higher  capacities  for  vision,  and  filling 
Palestine  with  suggestive  experiences,  un- 
til the  land  of  Israel  is  enough,  simply  by 
its  associations,  to  throw  a  sensitive  soul 
into  ecstasy.  Meantime  the  great  law  of 
heredity  is  at  work,  producing  its  varia- 
tions, while  it  concentrates  and  develops 
the  psychic  gift  in  certain  individuals,  — 
like  Joseph,  for  example,  —  in  each  case 
the  specific  quality  of  the  gift  being  deter- 
mined by  environment. 

Thus,  under  the  pressure  of  Egyptian 
slavery,  when  the  whole  nation  is  blindly 
but  intensely  drawing  near  to  its  tradi- 
tional God  for  help,  Moses  arises.  In  him 
seership  is  at  the  full ;  yet  Egyptian  culture 
gives  it  a  peculiar  cast,  and  unites  it  to  a 
high  degree  of  intellect.  His  wonderful 
gift  is  yet  further  developed  and  special- 
ized by  his  sufferings  for  his  countrymen 
and  by  his  lonely  exile.  At  eighty  years 
the  vision  and  the  call  come  to  him  with 
overwhelming  power.  The  organism  is 
ripe  for  it  then ;  the  brooding  desert  fin- 
ishes the  work.  He  sees  a  burning  bush 
with  an  angel  in  it,  hears  from   it  a  call 


MIRACLES.  269 

to  deliver  his  enslaved  countrymen.  The 
vision  is  a  perfect  allegory  of  Jehovah,  the 
self-existent  Personality,  the  divine  imma- 
nent life ;  in  the  world,  supplying  the  fire 
of  life  to  it,  yet  not  consuming  it.  Yield- 
ing himself  up  to  this  vision,  he  was  for- 
ever vision-led.  So  far  as  the  records  go, 
we  find  no  trace  of  any  great  strategic 
power  or  statesmanship  in  Moses ;  indeed, 
the  modern  idea  of  him  is  a  misconception. 
He  was  a  tremendous  personality,  but  his 
genius  was  neither  military  nor  political. 
His  laws,  like  his  marches,  were  the  result 
of  visions,  and  it  was  by  the  power  of 
those  visions,  their  spirituality,  their  prac- 
ticality, their  coherence,  by  the  profound 
hold  they  had  on  himself,  and  by  their 
extraordinary  correspondence  with  God's 
world  and  God's  providences,  that  he  suc- 
ceeded in  deliverino:  Israel  from  the  Pha- 
raohs,  and  in  bringing  them  back  to  their 
old  Patria,  the  land  of  spiritual  suggestion. 
This,  however,  was  but  the  beginning  of 
his  work ;  his  post-mortem  leadership  is 
the  amazing  fact.  For  fourteen  hundred 
years  he  continued  to  guide  and  shape  the 
minds  of  the    Hebrew  people.      His  pro- 


270  MIRACLES. 

jected  personality  was  the  national  spirit. 
Standing  together  with  the  natural  features 
and  spiritual  associations  of  Canaan,  it  con- 
stituted a  living  stem  of  which  the  prophets 
and  heroes  were  the  branches. 

It  is  difficult  for  us  to  conceive  of  the 
effect  produced  by  planting  a  whole  peo- 
ple in  the  midst  of  such  associations,  and 
attaching  them,  both  by  law  and  also  by 
religious  and  patriotic  feeling,  to  such  a 
transcendently  psychic  type  of  faith.  Add 
to  this  the  inculcation,  both  by  precept  and 
penalty,  for  hundreds  of  years,  of  the  idea 
that  the  divine  vision  was  paramount,  and 
that  no  man  could  initiate  anything  with- 
out it,  and  we  have  the  spectacle  of  a  whole 
nation  placed  by  every  possible  attraction 
and  constraint  under  the  conditions  of 
spiritual  suggestion.  Not  only  that,  but 
the  conditions  excluded,  under  heavy  pen- 
alty, any  other  kind  of  suggestion  but  the 
Mosaic. 

Now  it  is  dif^cult  not  to  perceive  in  all 
this  a  kind  of  natural  evolution.  Fur- 
thermore, the  Hebrew  records  recognize  a 
sporadic  occultism  existing  side  by  side 
with  theirs.     There  were  the  magicians  of 


MIRACLES.  271 

Egypt,  who  up  to  a  certain  point  imitated 
the  miracles  of  Moses.  There  was  the 
false  prophet  Balaam,  a  snatch  of  whose 
clairvoyant  psalmody  has  been  handed 
down  to  us.  There  w^as  the  witch  of  En- 
dor  with  her  phantasm  of  Samuel. 

Moreover  we  have  here  and  there  a  hint 
of  the  method  by  which  the  Hebrew  seers 
brought  about  the  state  of  ecstasy :  some- 
times, notably  in  the  schools  of  the  pro- 
phets, it  was  through  the  use  of  music ; 
again  by  gazing  fixedly  at  the  precious 
stones  in  the  high  priest's  ephod.  In  the 
case  of  David,  the  king's  hand  was  sur- 
rendered to  a  mystical  guidance,  which 
formed  the  plans  of  the  temjDle. 

In  brief,  we  have  abundant  evidence  of 
the  best  sort,  because  inadvertent,  that  the 
Hebrew  visions  developed  under  the  same 
conditions  with  other  occult  phenomena, 
the  difference  being  that  the  Hebrew  oc- 
cultism was  far  mightier,  far  more  signifi- 
cant, and  that  it  was  devoted  to  the  one 
God  and  his  righteousness,  —  a  difference 
that  we  might  naturally  expect  w^hen  we 
consider  the  colossal  nature  of  the  Hebrew 
organism,   the    singular    coherence   of    its 


272  MIRACLES. 

system,  and  the  spirituality  of  its  origin. 
There  can  be  little  doubt,  therefore,  that  in 
the  near  future  the  Hebrew  narrative,  in- 
clusive of  the  visions,  will  be  accepted  as 
giving  us  an  entirely  truthful  and  natural- 
istic history  of  the  development  of  religion 
in  that  age. 

While  we  exercise  our  judgment  criti- 
cally on  the  question  of  authenticity,  we 
shall  find  no  reason  for  rejecting  the  clair- 
voyant element.  Its  stories  will  not  be 
regarded  as  myths,  for  a  myth  does  not  cor- 
respond to  the  organism;  "omne  vivum  ex 
ovo,"  and  the  Hebrew  history  clearly  gives 
us  a  sufficient  ovum.  Some  of  the  stories 
may  be  poems,  but  the  poems  will  be  felt  to 
be  true  to  the  life  of  the  time.  There  is  a 
manifest  advantage  in  this  view,  because  we 
are  not  obliged  to  do  violence  to  one  great 
principle  of  the  higher  criticism  by  deny- 
ing a  certain  genuine,  self-evidencing  spir- 
itual element  that  runs  through  the  Old 
Testament.  Indeed,  by  classifying  the  vis- 
ions of  Israel  with  the  same  sort  of  occult- 
ism that  appears  to  have  followed  in  every 
age  certain  exalted  souls,  like  Joan  of  Arc, 
St.  Francis,  Savonarola,  George  Fox,  Martin 


MIRACLES.  273 

Luther,  and  even  lesser  personalities  when 
thrown  into  a  state  of  exaltation,  we  can 
retain  the  whole  portraiture  of  these  Old 
Testament  heroes,  precisely  as  Keim  pre- 
serves the  whole  of  St.  Paul's  biography, 
including  his  estatic  vision  of  the  risen 
Christ,  without  sacrificing  either  intuition 
or  logic.  It  corresponds  to  the  structure 
of  the  cosmos  that  under  certain  conditions 
there  should  be  occult  phenomena.  Mag- 
nify the  conditions  by  a  thousand  years  of 
peculiar  environment,  natural  selection,  and 
specialization,  and  you  may  expect  a  tran- 
scendent kind  of  occultism  compared  with 
which  everything  else  of  the  kind  will  be 
a  mere  dwarf  or  abortion. 

That  human  experience  on  such  a 
subject  should  differ  widely  is  no  more 
extraordinary  than  that  there  should  be 
ice  in  New  England  and  dates  in  Africa. 
Evolution  is  a  broad  process.  A  man  on 
one  side  of  the  organism  may  have  no 
experience  of  what  is  going  on  on  the 
other.  So  far,  therefore,  as  the  reality  of 
the  visions  is  concerned,  it  seems  inevi- 
table that  we  should  all  come  together  on 
the  ground  of  their  entire  naturalism ;  and, 


274  MIRACLES. 

after  all,  devout  students  of  the  Bible  need 
find  nothing  to  regret  in  this. 

Surely  if  God  caused  his  revelation  in 
Christ  to  take  the  organic  form  that  is  com- 
mon to  the  visible  world,  He  meant  that  it 
should  be  considered  an  organism  and 
studied  as  such  ;  and,  if  it  makes  the  su- 
pernatural akin  to  us,  it  also  makes  us  akin 
to  the  supernatural.  It  strikes  a  blow 
at  our  darkest  doubt,  the  doubt  of  our 
own  inherent  spirituality.  If  it  natural- 
izes heaven,  it  supernaturalizes  earth.  Be- 
sides, we  have  worked  in  the  interest  of 
truth  when  we  have  classified  anything. 
Havins:  found  the  class  to  which  it  be- 
longs,  we  are  on  the  unmistakable  road  to 
genus  and  species. 

We  have  recognized  the  fact  that  the 
visions  belong  to  the  class  of  occult  phe- 
nomena, also  that  the  occultism  consists 
merely  in  our  ignorance  of  the  law.  We 
have  seen  that  they  correspond  to  the 
organism  and  to  its  evolution ;  we  have 
grasped  in  part  the  law;  we  have  found 
that  it  is  possible,  proceeding  on  the  basis 
of  this  law,  for  a  man  to  induce  these 
phenomena  in  himself  or  in  others.     Now 


MIRACLES.  275 

comes  the  vital  question,  Was  this  merely 
human  supernaturalism,  or  was  it  divine? 
Is  it  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  these 
Hebrew  prophets  spoke  the  truth  when 
they  solemnly  declared  that  their  visions 
were  induced  by  the  Almighty  God  ? 
They  were  not  without  an  opportunity 
for  distinguishing  between  different  kinds 
of  occultism.  Such  phenomena  abounded. 
They  were  of  all  sorts,  morally  speaking, 
—  witchcraft,  demonism,  false  prophetism, 
commercial  clairvoyance.  With  all  these 
varieties  the  prophets  of  Israel  were  forced 
into  contact.  They  had  an  unceasing 
struggle  with  these  vagrant  types,  for  they 
recognized  in  them  a  distinctly  hostile  aim. 
Is  there,  then,  anything  unreasonable  in 
believing  their  testimony  that  they  were 
acted  upon  by  a  power  morally  different 
from  that  which  wrought  the  other  phe- 
nomena,—  a  power  above  themselves  that 
made  for  righteousness  ?  If,  as  Jesus 
taught,  man  corresponds  to  God,  then  God 
must  correspond  to  man.  If  man  can 
induce  a  vision,  shall  we  say  that  the  in- 
finite God  cannot  ?  If  man  can  form  con- 
ditions favorable  to  such  a  process,  so  as 


276  MIRACLES. 

to  develop  the  state  of  vision  by  a  series 
of  natural  steps,  giving  little  shock  because 
of  their  gradation,  cannot  the  Eternal  do 
the  same  ?  If  the  feeble  life  centred  within 
a  human  being  is  able  under  certain  con- 
ditions to  affect  matter  without  the  me- 
chanical intervention  of  the  organs,  may 
not  the  divine  life  also  act  psychically  ?  If 
matter  is  everywhere  correlated  with  life, 
why  not  with  the  Divme  life  ? 

Then,  if  we  look  back  and  consider  how 
this  psychic  organism  was  formed,  what 
ages  it  required,  what  vast  coordinations 
it  involved,  transcending  all  human  con- 
trivance or  execution,  —  such  as  the  bring- 
ing of  the  Hebrews  from  Ur  to  Canaan, 
their  slavery  in  Egypt,  the  birth  of  Moses, 
the  Babylonish  captivity,  the  Restoration, 
the  Roman  conquest,  the  crucifixion  of 
Christ,  —  it  is  difficult  to  escape  the  con- 
viction that  over  all  these  coordinations, 
which  issued  in  a  spiritual  theocracy,  pre- 
sided the  Eternal  Life.  If  evolution  and 
history  anywhere  give  evidence  of  a  power 
that  makes  for  righteousness,  certainly 
there  is  evidence  of  it  in  these  Hebrew 
annals. 


MIRACLES.  277 

If,  again,  we  consider  the  condition  of 
mankind  at  the  beginning  of  the  Hebrew 
movement,  —  if  we  recognize  the  fact,  re- 
ferred to  under  symboHsm  and    legaUsm, 
that    man's    spiritual    nature    was    in    an 
embryonic    stage,  that    it    could    only  be 
reached   and   developed    through  symbols 
and  visions;  if   we   take   in   the  fact   that 
man's  higher  sensibility  had  at  first  to  be 
drawn  out,  like  his  intellectual  nature,  by  a 
kindergarten  process,  by  object-lessons,  by 
mechanical    and    outward    representations 
of  divine  values,  in  brief,  by  what  is  now 
called  "anthropomorphism,"  —  is  it  unrea- 
sonable to  suppose  that  "the  power    not 
ourselves  which  makes  for  righteousness  " 
should   lay   hold   of   that    perceptive    ele- 
ment   in  man  which  was  the  most  sensi- 
tive, nearest  to  the  surface,  and  most  akin 
to  symbolism,  and  should  develop  this  grad- 
ually into  a  vast  organism,  through  which 
He    could    communicate,   without    shock 
and  in  a  coherent  manner,  a  gigantic  and 
gradually  developing  revelation  of  himself  ? 
Every  life  has  its  organism.     Why  should 
there  not  be  an  organism  of   the  Logos, 
that  eternal  life  that  was  with  God  ?     In 


2/8  MIRACLES. 

a  primeval  age  there  was  a  certain  type  of 
fishes  who  were  the  progenitors  of  the 
birds.  They  possessed  anticipatory  organs, 
such  as  a  rudimentary  lung  by  which  they 
could  breathe  out  of  water,  and  a  membra- 
nous wing  by  which  they  could  fly  up  and 
browse  upon  the  shrubs  that  overhung  the 
stream. 

This  prehistoric  organism  was  not  only 
divinely  prophetic,  a  word  of  God  to  be 
fulfilled,  but  it  was  also  formative;  by  it 
the  primitive  constitution  was  enabled  to 
stock  itself  with  better  food,  and  thus 
bring  its  nervous  centres  to  the  higher 
vitalization  requisite  for  new  organs.  Is 
it  unreasonable  to  believe  that  in  the  spir- 
//?/<^/ development  of  the  race,  there  should 
be  an  anticipatory  organism,  not  only  for 
supplying  the  spiritual  vitality  of  that  day 
with  the  bread  of  God  which  it  could  not 
otherwise  obtain,  but  for  the  purpose  of 
storing  up  a  stock  of  spiritual  energy,  out 
of  which  there  might  be  evolved  a  new 
spiritual  centre  of  life  and  perception } 

This  agrees  with  the  genius  of  the  Old 
Testament.  It  is  pathetic  to  see  the  sense 
of  incompleteness  with  which  the  Hebrew 


MIRACLES.  279 

prophets  were  filled ;  psalmody  and  vision 
alike  looked  eagerly  forward  to  that  which 
was  to  come.  The  word  "prophetic"  char- 
acterizes the  whole. 

There  was  throughout  a  sense  of  par- 
turition, a  faith  not  so  much  in  the  organ- 
ism itself  as  in  that  which,  under  the 
brooding  Spirit  of  God,  it  was  about  to 
bring  forth.  In  accepting  this  view,  there- 
fore, we  come  close  to  the  standpoint  of 
the  writers  themselves ;  but  if  this  was 
a  divine  spiritualizing  organism,  if  the 
divine  visions  were  a  fact,  then  it  seems 
reasonable  that  there  should  have  been 
miracles  —  or,  in  other  words,  outward 
spiritual  effects  —  on  a  large  scale.  They 
do  not  occur  now,  true,  but  we  have  no 
such  organism.  They  do  not  occur,  or  at 
least  occur  only  in  a  sporadic  way  and  on 
a  small  scale,  in  other  histories.  True,  but 
no  historic  people  save  the  Jews  had  any 
such  vast  and  coherent  psychic  organ- 
ism. Why  should  not  the  environment 
correspond  to  the  organism }  That  is  the 
law  of  development.  Wherever  there  have 
been  psychic  visions,  there  have  been  out- 
ward   experiences    which    simulated    the 


280  MIRACLES. 

Hebraic ;  these  wandering  and  imperfect 
types  point  to  a  perfected  type,  and  it  may 
well  be  asked  whether  such  an  organism 
could  be  developed  at  all  without  miracles. 
A  monk  shut  up  in  a  cell  might  perhaps 
be  led  by  visions  without  coming  into  vio- 
lent collision  with  facts,  but  a  nation  can- 
not move  without  constant  interaction  with 
the  world.  There  7nust  be  outward  cor- 
respondence. A  race  of  slaves  could  not 
throw  off  their  bondage,  and  march  under 
the  guidance  of  visions  out  from  the  most 
powerful  empire  of  the  day,  through  a 
foodless  and  waterless  desert,  in  the  midst  of 
warlike  tribes,  wrest  a  whole  country  from 
an  exceedingly  valiant  people  dwelling 
in  fortified  towns,  and  build  up  an  empire 
of  their  own,  they  themselves  being  all  the 
time  passively  led  by  visions,  unless  out- 
ward circumstances  and  hard  facts  were 
somehow  made  to  correspond  to  the 
visions.  Yet  this  is  the  problem  of  the 
Israelites.  In  the  light  of  our  modern 
knowledo^e,  the  o:reatest  miracle  of  all  is 
the  simple  historic  fact  of  the  Exodus,  — 
the  march  to  and  conquest  of  Canaan  by 
a  race  of  slaves. 


MIRACLES.  281 

We  know  the  perfect  military  equipment 
of  Egypt.  We  know  the  desert ;  we  have 
the  archives  of  Lachish  ;  we  know  the  civi- 
Hzation,  the  Hterature,  and  the  mihtary 
power  of  the  Canaanites.  We  know  the 
IsraeHtes  had  nothing  competent  to  all 
this.  Had  Moses  been  a  great  general, 
had  there  been  any  strategy  or  adequate 
preparation,  they  would  appear  in  the  ac- 
count ;  we  should  have  an  echo  of  them,  at 
least,  in  some  of  the  very  ancient  historic 
fragments  that  the  Jewish  historians  have 
pieced  together  for  us.  The  history  of  the 
Greeks  pictures  the  Greek  mind.  We  see 
what  it  depended  upon.  In  the  Hebrew 
history  we  see  the  Mosaic  mind.  We  see 
that  it  depended  absohUely  on  visions  and 
miracles.  It  clung  to  its  faith  for  self- 
preservation  ;  it  looked  upward  rather  than 
around ;  its  stronghold  was  Jehovah.  Each 
record  tells  the  same  story.  Safety  was  in 
faith.  The  man  who  had  it  survived.  He 
who  had  the  most  unquestioning  trust  in 
the  divine  vision  escaped  and  conquered,  for 
faith  was  the  quality  that  adapted  him  to 
his  environment.  What,  then,  was  that 
environment?     Was  there  no  gray  tree  to 


282  MIRACLES. 

which  the  gray  moth  clung?  Surely  such 
a  view  of  things  must  have  rested  on  some 
basis  of  fact.  We  cannot  accuse  the  Is- 
raelites of  imagining  a  spiritual  environ- 
ment for  two  thousand  years.  That  were 
a  long  stretch  of  fancy.  They  were  not 
spiritual  enough  ;  besides,  imagination  does 
not  account  for  the  Egyptians,  nor  for  the 
march  through  the  desert,  nor  for  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  Canaanites. 

We  are  forced  back  upon  the  funda- 
mental principle  —  organism  and  environ- 
ment correspond  to  one  another.  This  is 
rational.  As  we  have  already  seen,  matter 
corresponds  to  life.  The  highest  form  of 
life  is  mental  and  spiritual.  Matter  there- 
fore must  be  correlated  with  the  spiritual 
life.  If  we  believe  the  teaching  of  Jesus, 
we  are  bound  to  receive  this.  According 
to  Jesus  also,  man  corresponds  to  God. 
When,  in  human  experience,  the  psychic 
life  is  wholly  given  up  to  its  supreme  office 
of  suggestion  and  radiation,  it  not  only 
feeds  the  spirit  with  visions,  but,  exalted  in 
turn  by  the  spirit  and  surcharged  with 
spirit  force,  it  acts  upon  matter  in  a  direct 
and  causative  way,  independently  of    the 


MIRACLES.  283 

organs ;  it  radiates  the  creative,  causative 
spirit.     The  Hebrew  writers  tell  us  plainly 
that  these  wonders  were  not  their  work ; 
they   were    caused    by    God's  Word    and 
Spirit.     This  agrees  with  the  law  of  hu- 
man revelation,  with  the  individual  human 
organism:    why  should  it   not  have  been 
the  case  with  that  vast  Hebrew  organism? 
A  tremendous  corporate  psychism  stored 
up  for  five  hundred  years  reaches  a  crisis. 
Why  should  it   not  break  forth  first  into 
phantasms  of  transcendent  spiritual  glory, 
and   then   put  forth   corresponding  power 
over  matter?     Why  not  surely,  if  it  was 
the  organism  of  Almighty  God,  which  had 
been    more    and    more    deeply  penetrated 
by  his  life  and  surcharged  by  his  Spirit  ? 
Consider  that  this  was  the  sole  interpreta- 
tive   organism    selected    and    designed    to 
radiate,  both  the  spirit   and  idea  of  God 
in  his  relations  to  the  world,  and  the  laws 
growing  out  of  that  relationship.     These 
laws  control  matter ;  all  progress  is  condi- 
tioned  on   them.     Why   should    not   God 
and   these    laws   be   focused,    as    it    were, 
through   a  miracle   and   sign  ?      It   is  the 
only  way  they  could  be   refracted   to  the 


284  MIRACLES. 

spiritual  eye  of  that  age.  A  lens  that 
does  not  correspond  to  the  eye  cannot 
develop  it.  The  legality,  the  symbolism, 
the  visions,  all  stood  together;  they  consti- 
tuted a  moving  drama  of  God  in  his  world. 
It  is  inconceivable  that  the  drama  came  by 
chance.  Man  could  not  have  constructed 
it,  not  even  Moses  comprehended  it.  It 
must  have  been  developed  by  Him  who  is 
the  innermost  cause  of  all  evolution,  the 
life  of  every  organism ;  and  if  He  con- 
structed it  and  led  it  on  its  path,  why 
should  He  not  have  done  precisely  what 
the  Hebrew  writers  represent?  —  why  not 
have  caused  the  environment  to  complete 
the  drama?  It  certainly  could  not  have 
been  developed  without  some  such  envi- 
ronment. It  would  have  been  a  lame  kind 
of  drama  without  it,  —  only  half  the  truth, 
and  the  smaller  half  at  that.  And  this 
brinofs  me  to  the  value  of  the  miracle  as 
presented  by  the  sacred  writers.  It  was 
never  an  isolated  prodigy,  or  a  mere  proof 
of  God's  power :  it  was  always  an  essential, 
coherent  part  of  the  spiritual  drama ;  nay, 
it  was  the  act  by  which  the  drama  touched 
God's  throne. 


MIRACLES.  285 

It  is  impossible  to  read  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  sympathetically  and  not  per- 
ceive that,  to  the  minds  of  the  writers,  the 
servitude  under  the  Pharaohs  was  some- 
thing more  than  a  literality.  That  groan- 
ing under  the  yoke,  that  cry  to  God  against 
the  oppressor,  that  struggle  of  the  human 
spirit  against  a  crushing  materialism,  the 
fact  that  the  enslaved  people  were  them- 
selves the  objects  of  God's  choice,  and  that 
it  was  by  this  very  experience  that  He  was 
shaping  them  for  his  purpose,  certainly 
stood  for  a  universal  law.  No  human 
soul  can  awake  to  the  realm  of  ideality 
without  realizing  the  tyranny  of  the  mate- 
rial world ;  yet  it  is  under  the  very  pressure 
of  that  tyranny  that  aspiration  is  devel- 
oped, and  the  choicest  spirits  prepared  for 
their  work ;  the  march  "  out  of  the  land 
of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage," 
stands  forever,  as  it  stood  to  the  Hebrew 
prophets,  an  allegory  of  all  spiritual  pro- 
o-ress:  every  human  spirit  has  its  Pha- 
raoh, and  the  day  of  the  departure  out  of 
Egypt  was  All-Souls'  day.  The  plagues 
of  Egypt  were,  undeniably,  fit  symbols 
of  those  direful  portents,  those  loathsome 


286  MIRACLES. 

parasites,  those  foul  corruptions  and  fatal 
judgments,  that  everywhere  attend  a  neg- 
lect to  heed  the  cry  of  the  human  soul 
against  the  oppressive  materialism  that  is 
destroying  it.  They  are  but  the  retroac- 
tions of  a  wide-sweeping  social  law.  But 
it  needs  the  miracle  of  Israel  to  teach  the 
fact  that  social  law  takes  in  God  ;  they 
reckon  ill  who  count  Him  outside  of  their 
social  evolution.  The  Passover,  too,  was 
a  solemn  shadow  of  a  spiritual  law  that 
runs  through  history.  The  Israelites,  di- 
vided from  the  Egyptians  by  their  sym- 
bolic attitude,  sitting  in  the  dead  of  the 
nisfht  within  closed  doors  with  staves  in 
their  hands,  spurning  that  luxury  of  wdiich 
the  leaven  was  a  type,  ready  to  take  dis- 
tasteful bread  and  bitter  herbs  if  only  they 
might  be  free,  sharing  their  sacrificial  feast 
with  God  as  though  they  would  share 
their  Father's  livelihood  with  Him  (the 
blood  of  their  victim  for  a  sign  upon  the 
door-post),  stood  for  that  type  of  man  in 
whose  favor  God  ever  discriminates  and 
whom  God  ever  leads ;  for  the  great  prin- 
ciple of  judgment  in  God's  providence  is 
this :  those  men  whose  consciences  can  be 


MIRACLES.  287 

awakened  only  by  the  dreadful  effects  of 
retroactive  law  must  have  their  revelations 
of  God  in  such  sort ;  but  those  that  can  be 
touched  by  the  sacrificial  souls  whom  God 
sends  to  suffer  for  them,  —  to  them  the 
Father's  own  sacrifice  becomes  a  sufficient 
revelation  for  the  conscience,  and  they  are 
graciously  led  out  of  all  bondage. 

The  cloud,  also,  and  the  pillar  of  fire,  by 
which  Israel  were  guided,  are  surely  both 
type  and  prophecy  of  that  divine  manifes- 
tation experienced  by  Jesus  and  promised 
to  his  disciples,  —  a  manifestation  which 
means  not  only  guidance  but  companion- 
ship ;  nay,  more  than  this,  the  type  has  its 
fulfillment  in  that  brooding  Providence, 
that  shadow  of  God's  wing,  which  enables 
the  disciplined  follower  of  Christ  to  cry 
out  with  peculiar  exultation,  "  He  leadeth 
me."  The  bringing  of  Israel  into  that 
place  of  trial,  the  Red  Sea  before  them,  the 
army  of  Pharaoh  at  their  backs,  is  a  touch 
of  spiritual  experience  drawn  to  the  life : 
it  is  a  touch  of  the  true  Hebraism  also ; 
the  whole  national  history  lies  in  it  as  in 
a  germ. 

For,  in  the  Hebrew  account,  faith  was 


288  MIRACLES. 

the  one  great  vital  principle  which  coordi- 
nated the  organism  with  God's  character 
and  purpose.  I  do  not  mean  that  sort  of 
passive,  indifferent  faith  that  the  subject 
of  hypnotism  has  in  the  operator:  I  mean 
the  turning  of  the  better  nature  to  God, 
the  voluntary  response  of  the  conscience, 
the  moral  affections,  and  the  will  to  God's 
moral  commands  and  spiritual  character. 
The  faith  referred  to  is  like  that  of  the 
child  when  it  responds  to  the  spiritual 
care,  love,  and  direction  of  the  parent.  It 
is  the  beginning  of  moral  reciprocity,  of 
a  mutual  holy  affection ;  it  is  the  first  step 
in  the  evolution  of  the  animal  toward  the 
spiritual  life.  This  actual  moral  recipro- 
city of  the  individual  Israelite  with  his 
God  was,  so  to  speak,  the  spinal  cord  of 
the  whole  organism ;  here  its  permanent 
results  were  stored  up ;  here  began  the 
formation  of  the  true  spiritual  perception, 
which  was,  as  has  been  already  pointed 
out,  inclusive  of  the  whole  soul.  It  was 
by  the  development  of  faith  in  the  individ- 
ual man  that  the  entire  life  of  Israel  was 
to  be  purified  and  spiritualized,  the  eye 
made  single  and  the  vision  clear.     All  this 


MIRACLES.  289 

was,  of  course,  as  inseparable  from  the 
revelatory  process  as  the  making  of  better 
object-glasses  is  from  the  revelations  of 
astronomy.  The  object-glass  is  the  final 
coordinating  fact  in  the  astronomical  reve- 
lation ;  so  likewise  it  was  this  eye  of  faith 
which  was  the  final  fact  in  the  coordina- 
tion of  the  Hebrew  organism  with  God's 
Spirit.  The  Scripture  admits  that  there 
were  psychic  wonders  produced  by  psychic 
organisms,  subjective  wonders  produced 
by  human  witchery,  demoniac  wonders 
produced  by  organisms  surrendered  to  evil 
powers ;  but  the  wonderful  works  of  God 
required  not  only  psychic  but  moral  faith, 
a  mind  actively  and  passively  surrendered 
to  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  miracle  itself 
was  a  token  of  the  mind  of  the  Spirit.  By 
faith  they  passed  through  the  Red  Sea  as 
on  dry  land.  Whenever  faith  failed,  the 
organism  was  wrecked,  it  was  no  longer 
in  the  pathway  of  the  divine  mind ;  there- 
fore whatever  path  led  to  faith  was,  for  the 
Hebrew,  good  strategy.  As  I  have  said, 
nothing  could  be  more  true  to  the  Hebrew 
thought  than  this.  Of  course  I  am  speak- 
ing of  the  old  Hebrew  thought,  not  of  the 


290  MIR  A  CLES. 

modern  Judaism  which  is  its  corpse.  God 
leads  men  according  to  their  structure: 
the  path  of  development  for  an  organism 
must  correspond  to  the  organism ;  the 
leading,  therefore,  of  the  Israelites  by  the 
fiery  pillar  into  this  position  of  acute  trial 
for  their  faith,  where  there  was  no  chance 
whatever  for  material  help,  where  every 
energy  must  be  turned  in  upon  faith  and 
the  divine  must  be  brought  to  the  front, 
is  a  perfect  carrying  out  of  the  spiritual 
drama. 

By  just  such  processes  spirituality  is 
developed  universally.  And  when  Moses, 
himself  a  wondrous  personal  symbol  of 
the  divine  sacrifice,  stood  before  the  sea 
and  lifted  up  his  shepherd's  staff, — the 
memento  of  his  suffering  for  Israel,  the 
sceptre  of  his  divine  leadership,  the  sym- 
bol of  God's  own  Headship,  —  then,  from 
that  unseen  environment  that  compasses 
us  all  about,  there  came  the  answer, 
swift,  awful,  majestic,  which  completed 
the  drama,  which  flashed  forth  the  mind 
of  God,  and  showed  the  interpretation 
of  life  to  be  His.  It  is  time  there  was 
an  end  to   that   talk    about   the   silliness 


MIRACLES.  291 

and  ignorance  of  those  who  beHeve  in  the 
miracles :  there  is  no  soUd  ground  for  such 
abuse ;  the  miracles  are  not  unreasonable. 
There  is  surely  nothing  unreasonable  in 
the  position  of  Christ,  that  nature  and  the 
supernatural  are  correlated  with  one  an- 
other, and  that  God's  Word  is  the  supreme 
natural  force  with  which  all  other  forces 
stand  together  or  are  coordinated;  as  a 
mere  hypothesis  it  is  quite  as  reasonable  as 
any.  And,  if  this  is  not  unreasonable,  why 
should  any  of  its  applications  be  unrea- 
sonable ? 

Moreover,  such  a  miraculous  organism 
agrees  with  God's  method  of  specialization; 
the  human  race  is  like  a  body  having 
different  members,  each  of  which  con- 
tributes to  the  upbuilding  of  the  whole. 
Thus  in  each  race  there  is  developed  a 
specific  value.  It  was  an  essential  thing 
that  psychism  should  be  lifted  out  of  the 
mire,  selected,  sanctified,  and  erected  into 
an  organ  for  divine  illumination  through 
an  environment  that  nutrified  it  to  the 
utmost ;  but  it  takes  only  a  glance  to  see 
that  this  could  not  be  a  common  human 
experience.    There  are  other  organs,  quite 


292  MIRACLES. 

as  important  to  manhood  as  the  psychic, 
that  must  needs  be  developed  at  its  ex- 
pense. To  bring  out  the  physical  powers 
and  the  economic  faculties,  there  is  needed 
the  pressure  of  a  strictly  mechanical  en- 
vironment :  put  the  crumbs  persistently 
close  to  the  nest  of  the  bird  and  he  will 
have  neither  wing  nor  brain  worth  speak- 
ing of.  Man  being  as  he  is,  it  is  necessary 
that  he  should  have  to  struggle  for  exist- 
ence ;  that  he  should  be  surrounded  by  a 
coercive  environment  not  too  suggestive 
of  divine  gentleness;  that  nature  should 
present  itself  to  him  as  an  inflexible  series 
of  forces  driving  him  out  from  his  vision 
of  paradise,  and  compelling  him  to  till  the 
ground  from  which  he  was  taken,  which 
ground,  also,  stimulates  his  will  and  in- 
ventiveness by  its  bringing  forth  of  weeds 
and  thistles.  Indeed,  taking  men  as  a 
whole,  there  is  never  a  time  when  they  do 
not  need  this  compulsory  aspect  of  nature. 
Lead  a  man  by  visions  wholly  and  it  will 
stunt  his  intellect;  feed  him  on  miracles 
and  he  becomes  lazy  and  egotistic.  It 
is  good  for  the  moral  nature,  too,  that  a 
man  should  feel  his  weakness  and  depend- 


MIRACLES.  293 

ence,  and  learn  the  great  lesson  of  pa- 
tience by  this  mechanical  aspect  of  things. 
So  will  he  creep  closer  to  that  Infinite  Life 
who  alone  creates  and  controls.  But  while 
this  is  vastly  important  for  his  secular  and 
moral  faculties,  it  is  essential  to  his  spir- 
itual affections,  and  to  the  growth  of  his 
moral  character  as  a  whole,  that  he  should 
have  significant  providences  suggesting 
the  presence  and  care  of  the  Creator,  — 
answers  of  God  to  the  cry  of  the  soul. 

Still  more  is  it  needful  for  the  race  that 
this  kind  of  special  providence  should 
be  carried  up  into  a  series  of  vast  and 
overwhelmingly  suggestive  coordinations, 
standing  together  with  some  colossal  or- 
ganism of  faith,  so  that  the  interior  and 
spiritual  relations  of  life  should  be  pro- 
jected upon  the  field  of  human  history. 
An  economy  of  the  dramatic  is  essential 
to  the  fair  development  of  the  race.  This 
is  peculiarly  true  of  the  terrible  miraculous 
judgments.  Like  the  legal  and  ceremo- 
nial punishments,  they  are  dramatic  an- 
thropomorphic representations  of  retroac- 
tive spiritual  law.  If  universally  extended, 
they  would    terrorize   mankind.     On    the 


294  MIRA  CLES. 

other  hand,  their  manifestation  in  connec- 
tion with  an  interpretative  organism  is  ten- 
derly merciful ;  it  interprets  to  us  the  laws 
of  life :  God  does  not  universally  and  liter- 
ally smite  the  Sabbath-breaker  with  death, 
but  whoever  breaks  the  great  law  for  the 
spiritualization  of  work  is  destroyed  by 
the  retroactive  effect  of  that  law.  Hence 
the  tender  mercy  of  a  drama  of  retroac- 
tive law.  The  God  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment miracles  was  no  more  severe  than 
the  God  of  Jesus  Christ.  Severity  is  jus- 
tice to  the  organism.  That  same  severity 
exists  in  nature.  It  is  the  legality,  the 
symbolism,  the  dramatization,  that  cause 
the  appearance  of  greater  severity.  In 
reality  all  that  was  going  on  then  is  going 
on  to-day.  If  we  were  to  sum  up  the 
effect  of  the  Divine  Drama  fairly,  it  would 
come  to  this,  that  God  is  a  Conditioned 
Personality. 

There  is  no  such  thing  as  an  isolated 
revelation  of  God;  there  is  no  isolated  God, 
He  is  self-limited ;  He  does  not  live  apart ; 
his  acts  are  necessarily  modified  by  other 
lives ;  his  life  is  the  manifestation  of  his 
character  as  affected  by  the  field  of  mov- 


MIRACLES.  295 

ing  events  and  personalities  in  which  it 
appears.  So  it  is  with  a  human  revelation. 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  man  of  great  humanity, 
devoted  to  his  country,  its  peace,  its  citi- 
zens of  every  section ;  above  all  else,  merci- 
ful in  disposition.  Nor  did  his  character 
ever  change  in  these  respects ;  yet,  through 
the  retroactive  effects  of  constitutional  law, 
and  through  the  mal-organization  of  forces 
brought  about  by  the  Rebellion,  he  became 
to  the  people  of  the  South  a  cruel  devas- 
tator ;  nay,  through  his  armies  and  gen- 
erals, he  became  a  man  of  blood,  a  de- 
ceiver, a  waster  of  homes,  a  destroyer  of 
thousands  of  husbands,  brothers,  fathers, 
and  the  cause  of  untold  misery  to  millions 
both  North  and  South,  and  this  char- 
acter he  maintained  to  the  bitter  end. 
There  could  be  no  greater  contrast  than 
between  Lincoln  the  humanitarian  and 
Lincoln  the  destroyer  of  the  South.  The 
explanation  is  simple :  the  ruler  who  lives 
in  an  organism  must  live  according  to 
its  laws.  If  those  laws  are  inverted,  the 
ruler's  life  will  take  on  an  inverted  aspect. 
If  his  subjects  turn  the  organism  into 
hell,  then  he,  however  sick  at  heart,  must 


296  MIRACLES. 

needs  be  hell's  ruler,  wielding  hell's  in- 
strumentality with  heaven's  energy  for 
heaven's  purpose. 

So,  too,  with  God.  In  man  God  is  self- 
limited,  for  man  is  creative;  he  is  God's 
chief  agent  for  evolution,  which  is  pro- 
gressive organic  coordination.  The  divine 
and  human  are,  therefore,  two  foci  in  all 
development.  If  man  so  coordinates  facts 
as  to  make  a  system  of  sin  and  penalty, 
then  God  must  use  that  system  of  sin  and 
penalty  with  almighty  power  for  the  train- 
ing of  man.  His  action  must  correspond 
to  the  organism.  That  is  God's  justice. 
Behind  it  is  God's  love.  So  the  Jehovah 
of  the  Old  Testament  is  throughout  a  God 
self-limited  by  man's  creative  power,  a  God 
whose  sorrow  can  no  more  be  fathomed 
than  his  love,  his  patience,  or  his  hope. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

THE    FULFILLER. 

In  the  celebrated  discussion  between  Dr. 
Wace  and  Mr.  Huxley,  on  the  claims  of 
Christianity,  Dr.  Wace  appeals  to  the  life  of 
Christ,  to  which  Mr.  Huxley  repHes,  What 
is  the  life  of  Christ  ?  For  himself  he  con- 
fesses that  he  gives  up  the  question  in  de- 
spair. The  attempt  to  construct,  out  of  the 
fragments  and  myths  that  have  come  down 
to  us,  a  rational  life,  seems  to  him  like  the 
attempt  to  put  together  the  vast  remains 
of  some  unknown  prehistoric  animal. 

No  illustration  could  be  happier ;  it  for- 
cibly characterizes  all  the  rationalistic  at- 
tempts at  a  life  of  Jesus,  from  Strauss 
down.  They  are  learned,  but  they  are  all, 
like  Mr.  Eber's  Rameses,  anachronisms. 
In  each  case  the  critics  have  absolutely 
discarded  the  position  in  which  they  found 
things.  They  have  rejected  the  Gospels 
as  utterly   untrustworthy,  because  of  the 


298  THE  FULFILLER. 

miraculous  element  that  runs  throuorh 
them.  In  fact,  at  the  bottom  of  all  their 
trouble  lies  an  entire  failure  to  understand 
the  organism  and  environment  out  of 
which  Jesus  was  developed.  They  are 
acute,  but  their  circle  of  observation  has 
been  too  narrow. 

Their  premise  is  that  the  social  organ- 
ism has  always  been  alike,  as  regards  the 
miraculous ;  but  this  premise  can  never  be 
proved.  Indeed,  the  opposite  fact  is  more 
and  more  coming  to  light.  These  critics 
have  therefore  been  like  a  body  of  scien- 
tists who,  discovering  in  Siberia  the  re- 
mains of  an  animal  evidently  belonging 
to  the  tropics,  have  refused  to  accept  the 
evidence  of  juxtaposition,  articulation  and 
general  correspondence,  simply  because 
such  a  structure  could  not  exist  in  a  cold 
climate.  Should  it  turn  out  that  Siberia 
had  at  one  time  presented  a  tropical  en- 
vironment, their  whole  position  would  be 
undermined.  The  same  thing  holds  true 
of  Christ's  life.  Environment  is  the  clue 
to  construction  here.  Once  admit  the 
facts  just  presented  in  regard  to  the  He- 
brew organism,  and   the  problem  of  con- 


THE   FULFILLER.  299 

struction  is  finished  for  us  ;  the  life  of  Jesus 
becomes  perfectly  rational :  it  corresponds 
throughout  to  nature  and  to  God,  and  is 
coherent  in  all  its  parts.  And  this  is  a 
great  relief  simply  from  an  intellectual 
point  of  view,  for  it  saves  us  from  being 
obliged  to  swallow  the  statement  that  the 
resurrection  and  all  the  other  miracles, 
characterized  as  they  are  by  the  most  pro- 
found spiritual  significance,  were  actually 
created  by  a  few  fishermen  between  a.  d. 
33  and  A.  D.  44,  which  is  what  the  mythical 
theory  amounts  to  in  a  nutshell. 

But  if  we  accept  the  fact  of  the  Hebrew 
nation  being  not  only  an  interpretative  but 
a  formative  spiritual  organism  for  the 
race,  then  the  Gospels  are  just  what  we 
should  expect:  their  peculiar  supernat- 
uralism  corresponds  perfectly  to  nature. 
There  is  no  gulf  between  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  New.  As  we  read  its 
pages,  we  are  still  looking  into  the  great 
organism  of  occult  force  which,  along 
with  its  upward  evolution,  has  here  and 
there  degenerated  and  gone  to  seed  in 
witchcraft,  demonism,  and  resulting  forms 
of   nervous    disease.      The    heads    of    the 


300  THE  FULFILLER. 

nation  have  departed  from  the  pathway  of 
faith,  and  have  led  the  people  into  lifeless 
dogmas  and  traditions,  vi^hile  at  the  same 
time  they  have  clung  to  their  hypnotic 
phenomena.  The  threatened  judgment  of 
Jehovah  has  come  upon  them,  —  they  are 
heavily  chastened.  Chastening  has  driven 
the  better  part  of  the  people  back  upon 
God.  Furthermore,  the  mightiest  of  all 
the  prophets  has  arisen  in  this  hour  of 
extremity  and  profoundly  touched  the  con- 
science of  the  nation.  The  true  pyschic 
element  in  the  Hebrew  stock  has  mean- 
while not  lost  ground.  It  has  been  refined 
and  purified  for  a  nobler  work.  We  see  it 
flashing  forth  here  and  there  in  visions  like 
those  of  Simeon,  Anna,  and  John  the 
Baptist,  or  welling  up  into  prophetic  psalm- 
ody as  in  the  case  of  Zachariah  and  Eliza- 
beth, and  in  the  so-called  Magnificat  of 
Mary  the  mother  of  Jesus.  These  psalms 
and  visions  have  in  them  the  same  quality 
of  inspiration.  The  soul  is  evidently  en- 
tranced ;  the  people  who  utter  them  are 
simple ;  they  have  in  them  no  permanent 
gift  of  genius ;  their  words  are  plainly  the 
effect   of   sudden    religious    ecstasy.     Yet 


THE  FULFILLER.  301 

not  only  is  their  language  sublime  and  the 
sensibility  singularly  pure,  but  the  hope 
which  they  express  is  logical,  —  it  corre- 
sponds to  the  facts.  There  is  in  it  an  in- 
describably pathetic  intuition.  The  hour 
of  Israel's  redemption  has  come.  Jehovah 
is  about  to  appear;  his  way  must  be  pre- 
pared, his  paths  made  straight.  It  is  more- 
over the  hour  of  parturition ;  the  outcome 
of  a  national  life  is  at  hand,  —  miracle  and 
prophecy  and  sign  are  to  be  fulfilled.  The 
king  of  Israel,  the  son  of  David,  is  to  be 
born,  and  at  this  point  the  vision  of  Joseph 
so  often  rejected  by  modern  critics  is  the 
most  coherent  of  all :  "  Thou  shalt  call 
his  name  Joshua,  for  he  shall  save  his  peo- 
ple from  their  sins."  Here  is  a  step  for- 
ward. The  salvation  which  the  first  Joshua 
brought  to  Israel  was  external,  it  was  a 
symbol  or  drama ;  the  new  Joshua  was  to 
bring  about  the  thing  dramatized,  deliver- 
ance from  sin,  or,  in  other  words,  from  those 
violations  of  spiritual  law  which,  in  their 
outward  effect,  are  ever  turning  society 
back  into  Egyptian  darkness  and  bondage. 
Thus  Joseph's  vision  completes  the  pro- 
phecies and  brings  us    to  the   real    hope 


302  THE  FULFILLER. 

of  Israel,  the  final  office  of  a  divine  revela- 
tor.  It  corresponds  to  the  evolution  of  the 
organism.  So,  too,  with  the  vision  of  the 
shepherds  at  Bethlehem.  We  have  still 
before  us  the  divine  drama,  but  how  won- 
derfully has  it  developed  !  It  has  followed 
the  law  of  revelation.  Sternly,  through 
ages,  has  the  flesh  been  chastened  and  sub- 
ordinated to  the  spirit,  the  Psyche  to  the 
Pneuma.  The  outward  symbol  has  been 
more  and  more  tempered  to  the  inward 
truth ;  miracles  have  been  blending  with 
special  providences,  and  they  in  turn  have 
been  disclosing  more  of  natural  causation ; 
the  lens  of  revelation  is  becoming  more 
transparent,  less  refractive,  and,  despite 
the  hypocrisy  of  their  leaders,  the  soul  of 
the  true  Israel  has  become  more  spiritual- 
ized, more  single  of  eye  and  pure  of  heart 
and  simple  of  faith,  more  humble,  too,  be- 
fore the  Divine  Word,  more  entirely  plastic 
under  the  influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

We  have  a  wonderful  expression  of  this, 
in  that  vision  of  the  pure  virgin,  oppressed 
by  the  suffering  of  her  people,  to  whom 
there  comes  an  angel,  saying,  "  Fear  not, 
Mary:  thou  shalt  conceive  and  bring  forth 


THE  FULFILLER.  303 

a  son,  and  call  his  name  Joshua.  He  shall 
be  great,  and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the 
Most  High,  and  the  Lord  God  shall  give 
unto  him  the  throne  of  his  father  David, 
and  of  his  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end." 
Nothing,  I  say,  could  more  entirely  cor- 
respond to  development  of  the  Hebrew- 
organism  than  such  a  vision.  It  has  in- 
deed been  simulated.  So  the  ideal  reality 
is  always  simulated  by  the  myth,  the  per- 
fect type  by  the  imperfect.  Other  pure 
virgins,  whose  souls  were  taken  up  with 
their  country  and  their  God,  have  fallen 
into  ecstasies,  which  have  proved  in  their 
smaller  way  prophetic.  It  is  reasonable, 
it  coincides  with  nature,  that  the  grand- 
est spiritual  organism  the  world  has 
ever  seen,  that  of  the  Divine  Logos  itself, 
should,  as  it  comes  to  its  great  birth-hour, 
have  its  pure  virgin  with  her  vision  of  de- 
liverance. The  Hebrew  organism  had  ever 
two  foci,  two  centres  of  vitality,  the  divine 
and  human,  these  two  becoming  more  and 
more  interpenetrative.  It  corresponds  to 
this  fact  that  they  should  at  last  meet  in  one 
human  being,  and  that  to  her  who  in  the 
zenith  of  her  holy  faith  says,  "  Behold  the 


304  THE   FULFILLER. 

handmaid  of  Jehovah :  be  it  unto  me 
according  to  thy  word,"  it  should  be  an- 
swered, "  The  Holy  Ghost  shall  come  upon 
thee,  and  the  power  of  the  Highest  shall 
overshadow  thee:  therefore  the  progeny 
shall  be  called  Holy,  the  Son  of  God." 
Mary's  vision,  like  that  of  Joseph,  is  true 
to  the  revelatory  law. 

In  the  Hebrew  history  we  see  that  God 
is  revealed  by  conditioning  himself.  Nay, 
more,  in  every  human  life  God's  own  life  is 
conditioned,  the  Logos  is  present,  —  it  is  the 
innermost  centre  of  vitality.  So  it  is  with 
a  man,  so  with  a  nation.  When  the  human 
soul  becomes  conscious  of  its  coordination 
with  the  Divine  Soul,  that  is  revelation.  In 
the  whole  development  of  Israel  we  have 
the  spectacle  of  the  Divine  Soul  drawing 
closer  to  the  soul  of  Israel,  more  and  more 
deeply  penetrating  it,  and  awakening  it  to 
consciousness.  The  coordination  is  more 
and  more  complete  and  subtle.  Now  at 
last  there  comes  a  specific  and  crowning 
organ  of  The  Life.  Earth  is  ready  to  be 
fructified  from  above,  and  so  heaven  comes 
to  earth.  Yes,  that  final  revelation  comes 
in  which  the  two  foci  are  united  under  one 


THE  FULFILLER.  305 

conscious  personality.  The  man  is  now 
conscious  of  the  God  that  is  conditioned 
in  his  own  existence.  It  is  the  final  in- 
terpretative step.  The  true  Joshua,  who 
leads  man  into  the  spiritual  world,  must 
have  in  himself  the  distinct  consciousness 
both  of  the  human  and  divine.  For  us  he 
spans  the  chasm  of  Infinity.  Thus  at  the 
birth  of  Jesus  the  drama  reaches  the  shore 
of  eternity.  The  organ  of  eternity  ap- 
pears in  the  world  in  that  form  best  fitted 
to  radiate  forth  reality,  and  to  deliver  us 
from  the  spell  of  worldly  lives,  a  little  babe 
lying  in  a  manger.  It  is  all  a  drama  of  the 
conditioned  God.  We  have  had  in  the  Old 
Testament  the  drama  of  authority,  law,  re- 
bellion, punishment.  We  come  now  to  the 
drama  of  the  Divine  Personal  Life.  The 
first  was  the  conditioned  Lawgiver ;  now 
it  is  the  conditioned  Father.  That  is  the 
vision  of  Mary  and  Joseph,  as  we  analyze 
it ;  and  it  corresponds  to  such  a  vision  that 
the  heavens  should  open,  and  that  upon 
the  humble  laboring -man  there  should 
break  forth  the  glory  and  the  psalmody  of 
heaven,  "  Unto  you  is  born  this  day,  in  the 
city  of  David,  a  Saviour,  which  is  the  Mes- 


306  THE  FULFILLER. 

siah,  the  Lord."  Nor  could  anything  be 
more  significant  than  the  angels'  song,  "  On 
earth  peace  in  the  men  of  his  goodwill." 
This  thought,  too,  is  organic.  Peace  is 
not  a  thing  that  can  be  poured  on  men 
like  water;  it  goes  with  a  certain  type  of 
manhood,  of  which  type  Jesus  is  the  stem. 
It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  the  profound 
significance  of  these  stories  relating  to  the 
man  of  the  Logos.  The  birth  of  Jesus  is 
not  the  mere  coming  into  the  world  of  an 
individual  human  being ;  it  is  a  revelation, 
—  the  climacteric  of  a  revelatory  and  for- 
mative organism  in  which  both  the  divine 
and  human  psychism  had  been  stored  up 
age  after  age  for  the  purposes  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  it  is  the  liftinorof  the  divine  drama 
into  its  final  and  personal  form ;  it  is  the 
beginning  of  the  last  revelation  of  God 
to  man,  and  this  the  heart  of  humanity 
has  vaguely  but  powerfully  felt. 

Detach  the  birth  of  Jesus  from  the  dra- 
matic organism  to  which  it  belongs,  and 
you  can  do  nothing  with  the  life  of  Christ. 
You  cannot  explain  it  in  isolation ;  you 
cannot  coordinate  it  with  any  other  envi- 
ronment. 


THE   FULFILLER.  307 

This  brings  us  to  the  question,  Did 
Jesus  himself  understand  this  to  be  the 
position  of  affairs  ?  His  own  language 
shows  that  he  did,  and  it  is  at  this  very 
point  that  Strauss,  Renan,  and  their  fol- 
lowers have  entirely  failed  to  portray  the 
real  Jesus.  Indeed,  they  did  not  grasp 
the  situation  themselves,  for  they  were  not 
true  disciples  of  Jesus.  They  did  not  fol- 
low his  teaching  in  regard  to  perception. 
The  spirit  of  Christ  is  the  clue  to  the 
mind  of  Christ.  Nothing  is  clearer  than 
that  Jesus  regarded  himself  as  the  child 
of  the  organism,  Amenable  to  its  laws  and 
institutions.  The  temple  was  his  Father's 
house.  He  obeyed  the  laws,  he  conformed 
to  the  symbolism  and  to  the  whole  insti- 
tution ;  he  directed  his  disciples  to  do  the 
same.  "  The  scribes  and  the  Pharisees 
sit  in  Moses'  seat,"  he  said :  "  all  things 
therefore,  whatsoever  they  command  you, 
do."  He  directed  the  leper,  whom  he 
healed,  to  present  himself  to  the  priest,  and 
offer  the  sacrifices  that  Moses  commanded. 
He  accepted  the  Hebrew  Scriptures ;  they 
were  his  guide  in  the  sorest  temptation. 
He  preached  from  them  ;  he  based  his  own 


308  THE  FULFILLER. 

gospel  on  them ;  his  life  and  death  were  in 
obedience  to  them,  as  he  understood  them. 

Very  soon,  however,  there  developed  in 
his  life  and  teaching  an  element  that  ap- 
peared antagonistic  to  the  Mosaic  system. 
His  attitude  was  not  merely  sympathetic, 
it  was  also  critical.  Speedily  it  penetrated 
and  rejected  a  mass  of  tradition  and  the- 
ology which,  in  the  thought  of  the  Jewish 
leaders,  was  inseparable  from  the  sacred 
institution.  This,  to  a  certain  class  of 
minds,  seemed  a  menace  to  the  whole 
structure ;  as  to  that  structure  itself,  how- 
ever, He  was  throughout  profoundly  rev- 
erent. This  is  instanced  in  his  solemn 
keeping  of  the  Passover,  as  a  preparation 
for  his  death. 

But  here  also,  where  he  recognized  di- 
vine authority,  he  distinguished  sharply 
between  form  and  principle,  penetrating 
everywhere  behind  forms  to  their  elemen- 
tal ideas  and  forward  to  universal  applica- 
tions. Thus,  even  when  he  was  obeying 
the  form,  his  bearing,  language,  and  per- 
sonality were  so  full  of  this  larger  idea,  so 
charged  with  the  spirit  of  the  thing,  that 
the  letter  itself  seemed  to  sink  into  relative 


THE  FULFILLER.  309 

insio^nificance.  The  institution  seemed  to 
dwindle  before  the  man.  The  living  forces, 
relationships,  principles  of  the  spiritual 
world  stood  forth  in  relief.  A  mighty 
spirit  is  a  great  interpreter.  It  puts  men 
in  touch  with  its  own  inner  meaning. 
.  There  is  no  crucible  like  love,  and  so, 
for  the  first  time  in  the  world,  men  began 
to  feel  the  process  of  spiritual  analysis  go- 
ing on  spontaneously  in  their  minds.  The 
bondage  of  legality  began  to  disappear, 
and  that  separation  of  organic  principles 
from  outward  forms,  which  is  one  great 
characteristic  of  Christ's  religion,  was  fast 
taking  place.  Nor  did  Christ  interfere  with 
it.  Nay,  he  welcomed  it.  I  am  speaking  of 
the  process  as  we  see  it  to-day  in  the  story 
of  the  Gospels.  It  is  this  which  constitutes 
the  gospel.  At  every  step  we  see  this  tak- 
ing place.  The  mind  and  heart  of  Christ 
radiate  forth  the  reality  of  things.  We  see 
that  he  has  penetrated  in  every  direction  to 
the  vitalities  of  the  religion  ;  behind  that 
institution  of  legality,  symbolism,  sacrifice, 
he  has  perceived  the  true  spiritual  world. 
Behind  the  external  law  he  has  detected 
the  law  of  the  developing  organism,  and 


310  THE  FULFILLER. 

that  law  of  revelation  by  which  the  human 
spirit  is  brought  into  full  reciprocity  with 
God.  He  has  pierced  to  the  fundamental 
element  of  law  and  perceived  it  to  be  love. 
He  has  looked  steadily  at  Mount  Sinai,  and 
through  it  to  the  eternal  Fatherhood.  He 
has  seen  that  the  fire  was  a  symbol  of  the 
hot  anger  of  love  at  that  which  destroys  its 
own  beloved,  the  child  of  its  heart.  He 
has  seen  the  meaning  of  the  Hebrew  the- 
ocracy, and  with  it  of  all  theocracies  or 
kingdoms ;  has  recognized  that  they  are  a 
temporary  phase  in  the  evolution  of  so- 
ciety, —  that  their  final  outcome  must  be 
brotherhood ;  the  final  king,  a  revelation 
of  the  Father,  disclosing  the  law  of  the 
organism,  which  is  the  law  of  love,  to  the 
disciplined  and  developed  human  percep- 
tion ;  so  that  the  law  is  no  longer  the 
yoke  of  an  outward  statute,  but  the  recog- 
nized necessity  of  the  soul  itself.  He  sees, 
also,  that  the  final  constraint  of  a  God- 
kingdom  must  be,  not  force,  but  the  know- 
ledge and  love  of  God.  This  is  the  ultimate 
authority ;  toward  that  sceptre  all  creation 
moves. 

These    ideas,    and    their   corresponding 


THE  FULFILLER.  311 

emotions,  shine  through  every  step  of 
Christ's  obedience  to  the  Jewish  law;  they 
irradiate  his  Jewish  visions,  prophecies,  and 
even  his  Jewish  way  of  putting  things,  for 
the  whole  language  of  Jesus  was  Hebraic. 
He  talked  like  a  Hebrew  prophet  or  rabbi. 
The  Hebrew  never  analyzed  things,  he  pic- 
tured them.  Subordination  he  expressed 
by  negation.  If  he  wished  to  convey  the 
idea  that  money-getting  must  be  strictly 
subordinated  to  culture,  he  said,  "  Seek  in- 
struction and  not  silver."  If  he  wished  to 
express  the  supremacy  of  devotion  in  a 
man's  life,  he  pictured  him  as  meditating 
on  God's  word  day  and  night;  in  other 
words,  the  truth  of  supremacy  was  pre- 
sented by  a  picture  drawn  at  the  contrast- 
ive  moment  when  the  subordinated  thino: 
is  cast  aside,  and  that  instantaneous  photo- 
graph stands  for  the  principle,  the  fixed 
choice,  by  which  one  thing  is  subordinated 
to  another.  This  method  of  presentation 
is  common  to-day  among  relatively  primi- 
tive peoples.  The  Jews  always  employed 
it.  Sometimes  it  blinded  them,  as  did 
the  rest  of  their  symbolism.  But  it  was 
a  way  of  showing  the  truth  necessary  to 


312  THE   FULFILLER. 

a  rudimentary  nature,  and  Christ  always 
taught  thus  in  public.  To  the  men  who 
followed  him  because  of  the  loaves  and 
fishes  he  said,  "  Labor  not  for  the  meat 
that  perisheth."  True,  he  had  just  been 
giving  them  that  meat,  and  certainly  he  did 
not  wish  them  to  give  up  their  industrial 
habits.  But  it  was  the  flashing  forth  of 
the  great  idea  of  a  supreme  industry,  and 
the  subordination  of  all  other  industries  to 
it.  So,  also,  to  his  disciples  he  said,  "  Re- 
sist not  evil."  He  never  meant  for  a  mo- 
ment to  abrogate  the  right  or  duty  of  self- 
defense.  On  the  contrary,  at  one  time, 
when  they  were  approaching  an  hour  of 
peril,  he  said  to  his  disciples,  "  He  that 
hath  no  sword,  let  him  sell  his  garment  and 
buy  one."  Nor  did  he  mean  that  a  man 
was  tamely  to  bear  evil  when  it  menaced 
the  institutions  of  church  or  state,  for  with 
a  whip  of  cords,  and  by  that  far  more 
terrible  constraint,  the  menace  of  his  own 
spirit,  he  drove  out  the  polluters  of  the 
temple  and  overturned  the  tables  of  the 
money-changers.  Even  his  illustration, 
"  If  a  man  smite  thee  on  one  cheek,  turn 
to  him  the  other  also,"  he  did  not  literally 


THE  FULFILLER.  313 

conform  to,  but,  when  he  was  illegally 
smitten,  replied  by  a  calm  appeal  to  the 
sense  of  right  in  his  adversary.  Such  say- 
ings were,  in  short,  a  part  of  the  Hebrew 
pictorialism  ;  it  was  the  natural  develop- 
ment of  a  teaching  that  had  its  root  in  vis- 
ions and  symbols.  The  "  resist  not  evil  " 
was  the  flashing  forth  of  the  truth  that 
there  was  a  higher,  a  supreme  way  of  over- 
coming evil,  namely,  with  good,  and  that 
this  was  always  to  be  put  foremost,  while 
the  harsher  and  more  violent  methods  were 
to  be  subordinated  to  it.  This  pictorial 
method  often  landed  him,  as  it  did  other 
prophets  and  rabbis,  in  paradoxes,  such  as, 
"  He  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it."  But 
through  all  this  Jewish  method  the  life  of 
Jesus  himself  shone  with  so  clear  a  radi- 
ance of  thought,  feeling,  and  purpose  that 
his  flashes  of  truth  did  not  mislead  his 
disciples  as  one  might  have  supposed 
they  would :  here,  too,  the  outward  forms 
seemed  to  melt  before  the  clear  and  steady 
outshining  of  a  spiritual  principle. 

So,  also,  with  regard  to  miracles.  As  a 
Hebrew  prophet  and  revelator  he  wrought 
them.    He  conformed  to  the  type  in  this 


314  THE  FULFILLER. 

respect.  Nor  did  he  disparage  miracles 
as  signs  of  the  Father's  love  and  care.  As 
•symbols  of  the  unseen  coordination  be- 
tween God  and  his  world,  he  gladly  per- 
formed them.  But  as  prodigies,  standing 
apart  from  the  eye  of  faith  and  from  the 
revelatory  law,  he  rejected  them,  and  he 
sternly  rebuked  the  tendency  to  crave 
them  as  a  logical  proof  of  God's  power  or 
presence.  Upon  spiritual  souls  seeking  to 
find  God,  but  deficient  in  spiritual  feeling, 
he  urged  attention  to  his  wonderful  works 
as  a  means  of  awakening  the  soul  to  the 
power  and  love  of  God.  "  Is  your  heart 
yet  hardened }  "  he  said  to  his  disciples  who 
gave  a  hard  interpretation  to  his  teaching ; 
"  have  you  forgotten  the  miracle  of  the 
loaves }  " 

Yet  there  is  no  question  that  his  w^hole 
attitude  and  teaching  conveyed  the  idea 
that  the  sign  was  nothing  to  the  thing  sig- 
nified, and  that  the  attitude  of  the  Jewish 
leaders  had  been  perverse  in  refusing  to 
receive  the  light,  and  warmth,  and  strength 
of  God  that  shone  through  his  mighty 
deeds.  Having  their  own  hearts  with- 
drawn from  God,  they  detached  the  lens 


THE  FULFILLER.  315 

from  the  light,  making  much  of  it  as  a 
thing  by  itself,  and  analyzing  its  intellec- 
tual value  as  a  proof. 

This  led  them  to  lose  absolutely  the  in- 
terpretative value  of  the  miracle,  and  also 
its  evolution.  They  clamored  for  a  sign 
as  a  proof  of  his  Messiahship,  but  they 
could  not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times, 
namely,  the  development  of  their  own 
organism  and  of  its  revelations  to  a 
less  refractive,  less  psychic,  and  more 
spiritual  type.  The  naturalism  of  the 
supernatural  was  becoming  more  and 
more  apparent.  So,  also,  was  its  causa- 
tion, the  power  of  the  human  life,  when 
coordinated  with  God's  life.  Failing  to 
penetrate  the  sign,  the  whole  Pharisaic 
theology  became  false ;  it  not  only  threw 
the  aspect  of  anti-naturalism  and  arbi- 
trariness about  the  entire  Hebrew  struc- 
ture, but  it  absolutely  failed  to  grasp  the 
fact  that  the  organism  was  a  develop- 
ment, that  God's  personal  love  for  man 
was  really  at  the  core  of  it,  and  that  the 
revelation  must  progress  from  law  to  love. 
But  this,  to  the  mind  of  the  new  Joshua, 
was  clear.     The  drama   that   began  with 


3l6  THE  FULFILLER. 

miracles  of  God's  judgments  must  end 
with  miracles  of  divine  relief.  Sinai,  with 
its  dramatization  of  God's  fiery  soul  and 
of  the  awful  distance  between  it  and 
the  animalized  human  life,  must  give 
place  to  a  drama  of  reconciliation  through 
the  conditioned  and  sacrificed  life  of 
God.  Of  all  this  they  had  not  the 
faintest  inkling,  any  more  than  Nicode- 
mus  had  of  the  law  of  spiritual  percep- 
tion by  which  one  enters  the  God-realm. 
This  made  them  reject  the  theocracy  of 
Jesus  with  the  utmost  scorn  ;  it  filled  them 
with  supremest  contempt  for  his  simple 
spiritual  authority,  and  also  for  the  mira- 
cles of  divine  comfort,  support,  and  heal- 
ing by  which  he  authenticated  it.  The 
idea  of  the  conditioned,  humanized,  sac- 
rificial life  of  God,  descended  from  its 
throne  over  nature  to  suffer  for  and  min- 
ister to  them,  did  not  penetrate  their 
minds.  Christ's  spiritual  view  of  the  in- 
stitution antagonized  their  material  con- 
ception of  it.  His  very  name,  Joshua,  was 
a  mockery  to  their  false  national  hope. 
Theirs  was  not,  in  fact,  the  true  Hebrew 
institution ;  it  was  a  mechanical  travesty  of 


THE  FULFILLER.  317 

it,  which  the  hierarchy  had  built  in  their 
half-conscious  political  ambition.  In  this 
false  structure  form  was  uppermost ;  spirit 
was  of  small  account.  The  inevitable  result 
was  spiritual  stupidity  and  bondage.  Natu- 
rally, every  step  of  this  true  Joshua,  in  his 
large,  free,  significant,  spiritual  observance 
of  the  law,  had  a  tendency  to  topple  over 
the  false  system.  He  was,  indeed,  leading 
Israel  out  of  the  wilderness.  Before  such 
a  life  the  spirit  of  the  Jewish  institution 
came  irresistibly  to  the  top.  Hebraism,  in 
the  hands  of  Jesus,  was  like  a  burning- 
glass, —  the  sun  shone  through  it  and 
started  a  flame  of  love ;  righteousness  be- 
gan to  be  spontaneous  ;  obedience  became 
free ;  unselfishness  was  the  highest  self- 
interest  ;  men  gladly  left  all  to  follow 
Jesus,  though  he  led  them  through  a 
strait  gate,  for  w^hile  he  walked  in  the 
childish  footprints  of  the  Jewish  law,  the 
pathway  was  transfigured  by  his  feet.  Yet 
so  identified  in  men's  minds  w^as  the  He- 
brew institution  with  the  theology  and 
ecclesiasticism  of  the  Pharisees  that  they 
failed  to  grasp  the  actual  situation.  When 
ecclesiasticism    tottered,    they    thought   it 


3l8  THE   FULFILLER. 

was  divine  revelation  which  was  about  to 
fall ;  when  forms  relaxed  their  grasp,  they 
thought  it  was  the  moral  law  which  was 
weakening ;  when  love  came  to  the  front, 
they  imagined  that  justice  and  punishment 
were  passing  by.  The  rise  of  liberty  sig- 
nified to  them  the  end  of  accountability. 
This  led  Jesus  to  define  his  position.  He 
was  not  so  concerned  for  his  enemies  as 
for  his  own  disciples,  lest  their  consciences 
should  be  blunted  by  this  conception  of 
things.  Therefore  he  took  pains  at  an 
early  period,  when  his  popularity  was  at 
its  height,  to  call  his  disciples  apart  and 
make  them  a  formal  address,  in  which  he 
sketched,  after  his  pictorial  fashion,  the 
spiritual  form  that  the  theocracy  was  to 
assume  under  his  reign ;  he  pictured  its 
happiness  as  springing  from  a  penitent, 
purified,  and  spiritualized  moral  nature. 
"  Think  not,"  said  he,  "  that  I  am  come  to 
destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets.  I  am  not 
come  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill."  Now,  from 
his  illustrations  and  his  position  in  regard 
to  the  supernatural,  already  considered,  it 
is  plain  that  he  meant  such  a  fulfillment 
as  we  see  constantly  going  on  in  nature. 


THE  FULFILLER.  319 

Nature's  method  of  fulfillment  is  the 
organic.  The  law  and  the  prophets  con- 
stituted, as  we  have  already  seen,  a  natural 
organism  of  God.  It  was  interpretative. 
It  was  the  crowning  revelatory  organ- 
ism of  the  world,  the  last  step  in  the 
coordinating  process  by  which  God  re- 
vealed himself.  But  this  revelatory  func- 
tion was  inseparable  from  the  process 
of  purification  and  spiritualization,  since 
the  human  soul  itself  was  both  eye  and 
object-glass,  and  the  human  conscience 
was,  so  to  speak,  the  optic  focus ;  there- 
fore the  Hebrew  organism  was  the  matrix 
for  a  spiritual  type  of  conscience,  a  holy 
manhood  corresponding  to  God.  So, 
when  Jesus  said  that  he  came  to  fulfill,  he 
meant  that  he  was  to  be  the  new  and  final 
organ  of  revelation  and  righteousness,  —  a 
stem  coming  out  of  the  Hebrew  plant  to 
take  up  into  itself  and  complete  the  spir- 
itualizing process,  bringing  it  ultimate 
fruition  in  his  own  life.  This  is  the  only 
intelligible  view  of  his  meaning,  the  only 
one  that  agrees  with  all  his  utterances  and 
with  the  facts  in  the  case.  The  old  theo- 
los;ical  notion,  that  he  fulfilled  the  law  for 


320  THE   FULFILLER. 

US  as  a  substitute,  is  positively  antago- 
nistic, not  only  to  the  moral  nature,  but  to 
the  general  tenor  of  Christ's  teaching,  and 
particularly  to  such  expressions  as  imme- 
diately follow  his  statement.  But  the  con- 
ception of  an  organic  fulfillment  fits  the 
exact  situation ;  the  apparent  antagonism 
of  Jesus  to  the  law  and  the  prophets  was 
precisely  of  the  kind  that  appears  to  take 
place  in  nature  at  the  beginning  of  any 
new  stage  of  development.  The  new 
organ  is,  at  first,  a  continuation  of  the 
old;  the  stem  is,  at  first,  hardly  differen- 
tiated from  the  root.  Moreover,  it  has  in 
it  precisely  the  same  forces,  and  it  is  sub- 
ordinated to  the  root  and  dependent  upon 
it  for  sustenance ;  but  very  soon  it  appears 
that  the  forces  are  being  newly  centred, 
and  the  whole  structure  materially  modi- 
fied and  irresistibly  carried  upward  to  a 
new  method  of  coordination  with  the  air 
and  sunlight,  while  at  the  same  time  there 
remains  a  reciprocity  with  the  old  struc- 
ture. It  was  in  this  sense,  unquestion- 
ably, that  we  must  understand  that  saying, 
"  Truly,  I  say,  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the 
law  shall  pass  till  all  be  fulfilled." 


THE   FULFILLER.  32 1 

Here  we  have  Nature's  own  inflexible 
position,  —  reasonable  and  beneficent,  too, 
as  Nature  herself.  Not  one  cotyledon  of 
the  tiny  beech  can  be  permitted  to  fall  away, 
without  Nature's  penalty,  until  the  above- 
ground  stem  and  leaves  have  formed.  So 
with  that  ancient  organism  by  which  the 
human  conscience  was  coordinated  with 
God ;  there  is  no  section  of  it  but  repre- 
sents some  spiritual  force  or  necessity. 
Not  one  tittle,  therefore,  could  be  dis- 
carded until  the  new  organism  had  been 
formed,  and  even  then  only  by  those  moral 
natures  that  had  been  lifted  up  and  coor- 
dinated with  the  new  organism.  Theo- 
cracies, legalities,  ceremonials,  harsh  penal- 
ties, terrible  judgments  must  still  remain 
a  necessary  matrix  of  the  moral  nature 
for  individuals  or  communities  who  have 
not  attained  to  coordination  with  the  final 
stem  of  revelation  and  righteousness.  All 
church  history  bears  witness  to  this ;  nay, 
the  history  of  the  individual  soul  reveals 
the  same  law. 

Indeed,  Jesus  proceeds  to  describe  one 
of  the  great  effects  of  Christianity  in  its 
retroactive  aspect.     This  higher  revelatory 


322  THE  FULFILLER. 

organism,  he  declares,  is  going  to  bring 
out  the  real  significance  of  law.  As  the 
organic  force  develops  in  Christ's  king- 
dom, it  will  illuminate  the  structure,  it  will 
define  relationships ;  where  Christ  is  felt 
God's  law  must  appear  to  be,  what  it  really 
is,  no  arbitrary  or  mechanical  bondage  im- 
posed on  man,  but  the  law  of  our  own 
nature :  its  demands  are  those  of  the  spir- 
itual forces  and  correspondences  inherent 
in  our  structure ;  its  penalties  are  the  in- 
evitable results  of  their  violation.  The 
structure  is  abused,  and  thus  turned  into 
an  instrument  of  pain.  The  judgments 
of  the  law  are  these  same  pains  which 
follow  its  violation,  and,  as  always  in 
nature,  the  demands,  warnings,  and  pen- 
alties extend  to  the  innermost  part 
of  the  structure.  Furthermore,  viewing 
the  life  of  Jesus,  we  perceive  the  or- 
ganic force  to  be  love,  which  is  natu- 
ral reciprocity  of  spiritual  affection.  It 
means  genuine  sonship  to  God  and 
brotherhood  to  man.  The  demands  of  the 
law,  therefore,  correspond  to  the  organic 
force,  and,  as  it  is  always  with  natural  law, 
even  a  minute  departure  must  bring  upon 


THE  FULFILLER.  323 

US  both  judgment  and  penalty.  We  are 
no  longer  in  a  semi-organized  molluscous 
condition.  Those  who  know  Christ  are 
sensibly  coordinated  with  the  spiritual 
world  and  penetrated  by  its  life.  The 
higher  the  organism,  the  more  exact  is 
the  law ;  the  more  a  body  is  penetrated  by 
vitality,  so  much  the  more  searching  is 
the  organic  demand,  so  much  the  quicker 
and  more  frequently  does  the  struc- 
ture have  to  settle  its  account  with  law. 
There  is  a  tribunal  and  a  penalty  for 
the  smallest  transgression ;  and  this  result, 
which  everywhere  attends  organic  pro- 
gress, will,  so  Jesus  declared,  attend  his 
fulfillment  of  the  law.  "  Ye  have  heard 
that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old  time^ 
Ye  shall  not  kill,  and  whosoever  shall 
kill  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  lower  cri- 
minal court ;  but  I  say  unto  you.  That 
every  one  who  is  angry  with  his  brother 
shall  be  accountable  to  the  lower  court ; 
and  whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother, 
Raca,  shall  be  accountable  to  the  Sanhe- 
drim ;  and  whosoever  shall  say.  Thou 
fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  extreme 
sentence  of  the  law,  having  his  body  cast 


324  THE  FULFILLER. 

into  the  burning  valley  of  Hinnom  with 
the  worst  malefactors.  If,  therefore,  thou 
art  offering  thy  gift  at  the  altar,  and 
there  rememberest  that  thy  brother  hath 
aught  against  thee,  leave  there  thy  gift 
before  the  altar,  and  go  thy  way.  First 
be  reconciled  with  thy  brother,  and  then 
come  and  offer  thy  gift."  Reconciliation 
is  the  path  of  righteousness.  Fatherhood, 
sonship,  brotherhood,  these  are  the  organic 
laws,  and  the  least  infraction  of  them  is 
a  crime  for  which  no  external  service  can 
atone.  The  Hebrew  police  court,  the  San- 
hedrim, the  execution  of  the  criminal,  and 
the  burning  of  his  body  in  the  valley  of 
Hinnom,  are  but  outward  expressions  of 
that  irreversible  law  of  the  moral  organism 
which  Jesus  himself,  by  his  very  fulfillment 
of  the  law,  must  necessarily  illuminate. 

Indeed,  Jesus  always  declared  that,  as 
the  final  organism  of  law,  he  had  the  re- 
troactive work  of  law  to  fulfill ;  that  he 
who  was  the  stem  of  righteousness,  of  love, 
of  brotherhood,  must  also  be  the  stem  of 
judgment.  To  sum  up  matters,  he  ful- 
filled the  law  by  becoming  himself  the 
perfect  outcome  of  the  Hebrew  organism. 


THE  FULFILLER.  325 

In  him  there  was  a  perfect  conservation 
of  forces;  by  him  all  those  forces  and 
vitalities  were  carried  up  into  an  embodi- 
ment that  gave  them  universal  correspond- 
ence and  coordination  with  all  men.  So 
that  in  his  gospel  there  is  not  only  a  perfect, 
complete,  and  spiritual  revelation  of  God, 
but  a  potential  coordination  of  the  sinful, 
undeveloped  human  life  with  God ;  a  new 
matrix  of  the  human  conscience  ;  a  new 
lens  for  the  spiritual  eye,  taking  the  place 
of  legality,  of  the  ceremonial'yoke,  of  the 
dramatic  judgments.  And  the  essential 
force  in  this  new  organism  is  the  condi- 
tioned life  of  God,  suffering  under  the  sin 
of  humanity,  and  so  revealing  upon  the 
cross  in  human  form  the  love  of  the  Eter- 
nal Father,  which  is  the  real  cause  of  all 
the  laws  he  lays  upon  us,  and  of  all  the 
penalties  he  inflicts.  This  phase  of  ful- 
fillment, in  which  the  revelation  of  divine 
sacrifice  takes  the  place  of  penalty  and 
legality  as  a  matrix  for  the  conscience,  ap- 
pears in  the  last  supper  of  Jesus  with  his 
disciples.  There  he  significantly  holds  up 
the  Passover,  which  represented  the  whole 
system  of  legality,  symbolism,  and  organic 


326  THE   FULFILLER. 

mediation,  as  corresponding  to  himself. 
His  broken  body  and  shed  blood  are  to 
be  its  fulfillment. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

THE    RESURRECTION. 

The  only  natural  immortality  for  man. 

God  and  the  human  soul  are  the  two 
foci  of  the  Scripture  revelation.  It  could 
not  be  otherwise,  for  God  is  know^able  to 
us  only  in  his  relation  to  our  own  facul- 
ties. Every  step  in  the  knowledge  of  God 
presupposes  a  step  in  the  knowledge  of 
ourselves.  Necessarily,  therefore,  the  hu- 
man soul  occupies  the  foreground  of  the 
Bible.  Beginning  with  that  ancient  vision 
wherein  we  are  told  that  the  first  man  de- 
veloped into  a  living  soul  by  sharing  the 
breath  of  God's  life,  there  is  a  continuous 
series  of  visions  and  revelatory  institutions 
by  which  an  ever-increasing  light  is  thrown 
upon  this  same  living  soul.  But  this  it  is 
which  is  the  theme  of  all  great  revelators, 
poets,  prophets,  and  oracles;  for  all  the 
questions  of  divinity,  of  soul-culture,  of 
morals,  of  social  development,  hang  upon 


328  THE  RESURRECTION. 

it.  If  an  organism  is  related  only  to  the 
soil  beneath  the  sod,  then  it  requires  only 
subterranean  culture  ;  if,  like  the  kernel  of 
corn,  it  is  related  to  the  upper  air,  then  its 
culture  should  be  regulated  largely  with 
reference  to  this  fact.  So,  if  the  soul  of 
man  has  correspondences  to  the  supernat- 
ural world,  it  must  be  cultivated  with  refer- 
ence to  those  correspondences. 

It  is  absurd  to  talk  of  the  uselessness  of 
theology.  Theology  is  simply  an  investi- 
gation into  our  higher  relationships,  and 
the  laws  that  grow  out  of  them ;  and  in  all 
ages  men  have  been  unable  to  rid  them- 
selves of  the  impression  that  they  had  a 
kinship  with  the  supernatural.  This  is  not 
due  to  superstition,  but  to  sensibility.  The 
profoundest  natures  have  intuitively  felt 
certain  supernatural  elements  within  them. 
These  elements  have  stood  together  in  a 
kind  of  rational  unity,  furnishing  an  in- 
ternal evidence.  By  the  highest  and  most 
trustworthy  sensibilities  within  them,  men 
have  felt  the  divine  life  in  nature  brood- 
ing over  them.  By  those  same  sensibili- 
ties they  have  felt  their  relation  to  the 
divine.      Hence     have    sprung    theology, 


THE  RESURRECTION.  329 

and  religion;  visions  of  God,  and  of 
the  soul-culture  necessitated  by  our  re- 
lation to  Him.  The  visions  have  been 
distorted,  because  the  sensibility  was  im- 
pure, sporadic,  undeveloped  ;  hence  the  in- 
ductions were  imperfect.  This  result  was 
increased  by  the  fact  that  the  reasoning 
powers  were  untrained  ;  hence  came  super- 
stitions. The  light  was  feeble;  it  had  a 
short  radius ;  and  superstitions  are  the 
shadows  that  hang  about  the  penumbra  of 
our  light :  but  in  the  midst  of  all  these 
vagaries  certain  distinct  features  stand 
forth,  such  as  our  kinship  with  the  divine, 
the  immortality  of  the  soul,  also  the  neces- 
sity and  glory  of  sacrifice.  The  life  that 
sacrificed  itself  to  the  gods  or  the  father- 
land was  heroic,  divine. 

To  the  Hebrews,  and  also  to  the  Greeks, 
the  soul  or  Psyche  was,  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  the  sensuous  animating  life, 
but  their  notion  of  it  was  rather  vaeue : 
they  never  sharply  differentiated  it  from 
the  spirit ;  nor  had  they  ever,  like  our 
modern  scientists,  discerned  its  precise  re- 
lation to  nature  as  the  organic  force. 
They  did   not   therefore   perceive    its   in- 


330  THE   RESURRECTION. 

herent  relationship  to  matter,  even  al- 
though they  saw  it  to  be  physical  life ; 
nor  did  they  seize  the  correlative  fact 
that  matter  is  organized  by  life,  and  that 
by  consequence  the  two  constitute  a  natu- 
ral unity:  they  saw  that  the  body  per- 
ished, that  the  life  had  in  itself  eternal 
spiritual  qualities  and  relationships ;  fur- 
thermore, they  could  not  draw  the  line 
between  life  and  .spirit.  They  therefore 
conceived  of  the  life,  with  its  spiritual 
attributes,  as  surviving  after  death.  At 
first  their  conception  of  the  surviving 
soul  was  not  that  of  a  purely  immaterial 
existence ;  it  was  rather  gaseous  than  im- 
material, —  a  subtle  element  like  a  breath. 
They  were  unable  to  disassociate  it  in  their 
mind  from  bodily  organs,  but  those  organs 
were  phantasms,  without  weight,  force, 
or  indeed  any  of  the  qualities  of  matter ; 
they  could  not  embrace  nor  be  embraced. 
That  organic  quality  of  the  soul  which  en- 
ables it  to  enjoy  and  act  upon  the  material 
universe  was  forever  gone.  Therefore  the 
life  itself  was  gone ;  the  dear  one  who 
died  had  practically  perished ;  for  him  the 
sweetness,  the  melody,  and  the  glory  of  the 


THE  RESURRECTION.  33 1 

physical  universe  were  ended.  Not  only 
that,  but  he  was  forever  lost  to  his  friends ; 
for,  granted  that  the  mind  is  the  highest 
and  noblest  part  of  us,  still  it  is  through 
the  warm,  vivid,  forceful  physical  life  that 
the  mind  is  radiated  to  us.  That  is  the 
logos,  the  medium  of  contact.  Take 
away  that  vital  element,  and  the  noblest 
personality  has  small  effect  upon  us.  For 
it  must  be  remembered  that  this  physical 
life,  this  organic  element,  is  also  the  sen- 
suous and  the  psychic,  the  seat  of  the 
natural  affections.  It  is  by  this  that  hu- 
man beings  are  put  in  touch  with  one 
another.  It  is  the  foundation  of  social 
life  and  of  social,  evolution.  It  is  the  root 
of  all  fatherhood,  motherhood,  sisterhood, 
brotherhood,  —  of  all  filial  feeling  and  hu- 
man sympathy.  Take  this  away,  and  the 
mother,  the  child,  the  friend,  are  ours  no 
longer,  for  we  can  no  longer  feel  them ; 
the  coordinating  element  is  lost.  Such 
an  immortality  is  not  real,  and  this  fact 
the  ancients  themselves  fully  recognized. 
They  conceived  of  the  gods  as  possessing 
bodies,  and  as  rejoicing  in  eternal  physical 
force ;  and   the    hero   who   was  especially 


332  THE  RESURRECTION. 

dear  to  the  gods  was  himself  translated 
into  a  god,  and  shared  that  physical  im- 
mortality. But  such  an  august  experience 
was  not  for  the  common  mortal;  hence  the 
despair  of  the  ancients  at  the  death  of  a 
beloved  one.  We  see  it  portrayed  in  the 
pages  of  Virgil  and  Homer,  and  on  the  in- 
scriptions of  their  tombs. 

The  Egyptians,  it  is  true,  conceived  of 
an  ultimate  restoration  of  the  body ;  but  as 
the  process  was  liable  to  all  kinds  of  petty 
accidents,  the  consolation  was  dubious. 
The  Jews  caught  glimpses  in  their  Scrip- 
tures which  led  them  to  believe  in  a 
bodily  resurrection,  but  their  notion  of 
it  was  so  mechanical  as  to  be  absurd. 
Indeed,  the  intellectual  Sadducees  re- 
jected it.  As  the  Greeks  advanced  in  in- 
tellectuality, the  transcendent  qualities  of 
the  human  mind  became  so  apparent  to 
them  that  their  great  philosophers  fancied 
it  to  be  a  distinct  entity,  wholly  separable 
from  the  sensuous  life.  They  conceived 
of  mind  as  a  purely  immaterial  element, 
capable  of  existing  by  itself,  and  even 
antagonistic  to  matter.  However,  for 
this    position    they   had   small    evidence : 


THE  RESURRECTION.  333 

it  was  based  upon  a  deductive  philo- 
sophy which  we  to-day  regard  as  un- 
sound ;  nevertheless  their  greatest  phi- 
losophers believed  in  it,  and  fancied  that 
they  could  enjoy  such  an  existence  even 
better  than  the  present,  and  nothing  can 
be  more  pathetic  than  the  attempt  of 
Socrates  to  remove  the  fears  of  his  dis- 
ciples by  convincing  their  minds  in  regard 
to  the  reality  and  sufficiency  of  a  thing 
against  which  their  innate  organic  life 
protested.  There  is  no  question  that 
Socrates  was  right  as  regards  the  testi- 
mony of  man's  soul  to  its  own  divine  rela- 
tionship, and  also  to  the  transcendent  value 
of  the  mind  or  spirit.  But  the  testimony 
of  the  soul  is  equally  strong  as  regards 
the  inseparability  of  the  spirit  from  the 
psychical  or  organic  life,  nor  has  there 
ever  been  one  particle  of  evidence  for  such 
a  separation.  Between  these  two  testi- 
monies, therefore,  we  are  driven  to  a  hypo- 
thesis that  includes  both. 

Now  the  most  glorious  fact  about  Christ 
is  that  he  fulfilled  all  revelations,  oracles, 
myths,  and  expectations  concerning  the 
human  soul.     He  brought  out  the  truth  of 


334  THE  RESURRECTION. 

which  they  were  all  shadows  ;  as  Paul  ex- 
pressed it,  "  he  brought  life  and  immortality 
to  light."  This  he  did  by  actual  experi- 
ment. He  took  the  human  soul,  the  sensu- 
ous life,  the  psychic  organic  element,  and 
bore  it  about  in  his  own  person.  He  lifted 
it  out  of  the  mire  of  sensuality,  and  showed 
by  his  own  life  what  it  really  was,  —  a  word 
of  the  living  God,  a  seed-vessel  of  the 
supernatural  world,  a  radiating  medium 
for  the  eternal  life.  Its  suffering  and  sac- 
rifice even  unto  blood  he  showed  to  be  the 
mediatorial  element,  for  by  it  he  put  men 
in  touch  with  God,  and  made  them  feel 
their  natural  relationship  to  God.  Having 
thus  shown  that  the  Psyche  was  the 
element  of  mediation  or  coordination  be- 
tween heaven  and  earth,  and  between  men 
themselves  ;  having  shown  that  it  was  the 
foundation  of  moral  law,  and  of  social  as  well 
as  spiritual  evolution,  —  he  then  proceeded 
to  lay  down  the  principle  for  its  develop- 
ment: he  that  loseth  his  Psyche  shall 
find  it,  or  in  other  words,  discover  its 
divine  relationships  and  hidden  potencies. 
And  this  principle  he  demonstrated,  for 
he  presented  his  psychic  nature,  with  all 


THE  RESURRECTION.  335 

its  energies  conserved,  to  the  Divine  Spirit. 
So  great  was  his  conquest  over  the  Psy- 
che that  it  was  said  "  he  offered  himself 
without  spot  to  God,"  and  "  he  poured  out 
his  soul  even  unto  death."  As  a  result,  all 
the  vast  occult  potencies  of  the  Psyche 
were  unlocked,  and  divine  wonders  oc- 
curred, such  as  the  darkened  occultism  of 
all  ages  has  but  dimly  hinted  at;  for  the 
occultism  of  Jesus  was  possessed  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  All  its  wonders  stand  to- 
gether in  a  rational  unity,  constituting  a 
drama  of  the  soul's  relationship  to  the 
Father.  Nor  was  this  all.  Standing  in 
the  light  of  God  as  revealed  through 
nature,  Jesus  perceived  what  the  soul 
really  was,  —  not  a  thing,  even  in  its  most 
transcendent  development,  to  be  separated 
from  physical  existence,  but  an  eternal 
organic  force.  He  saw  that  if  a  man  died 
his  Psyche  w^as  like  a  corn  of  wheat 
falling  into  the  ground.  In  the  very  pro- 
cess of  death,  provided  that  death  was  a 
surrender  to  the  Divine  Spirit,  the  Psyche 
would  be  gathering  new  organic  energies, 
and  would  soon,  like  the  corn  of  wheat, 
clothe  itself  with  a  new  body.     Thus,  in- 


336  THE   RESURRECTION. 

stead  of  turning  into  a  separate  immate- 
rial existence,  and  becoming,  what  it  never 
had  been,  a  thing  isolated  from  the  physi- 
cal universe,  it  would  develop  onward,  by 
a  natural  metamorphosis,  toward  a  higher 
form  of  organic  life  in  a  perfect  unity  with 
nature.  As  it  had  originally  risen  from 
the  ground,  like  all  other  forms  of  life,  so 
it  would  again  rise  from  the  tomb.  This 
is  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  nearly  modern 
science  has  approached  its  underlying 
principle,  for  to-day  the  whole  tendency  of 
scientific  thought  is  not  toward  Aristotle's 
position  that  the  soul  is  absolutely  imma- 
terial and  separable  from  matter,  but  that 
it  is  a  kind  of  life  developed  through 
lower  organisms  and  never  disassociated 
from  matter,  and  that  its  sensibility  is  the 
beginning  of  social  and  moral  evolution. 
Indeed,  it  is  an  amazing  thing  that  many 
intellectual  people  scoff  at  the  idea  of  a 
physical  resurrection,  as  being  a  miracle 
contrary  to  the  uniformity  of  nature ;  while 
they  avow  their  belief  in  an  immaterial 
immortality,  a  thing  to  which   the   whole 


THE  RESURRECTION.  33/ 

testimony  of  nature  and  modern  science  is 
opposed,  and  for  which  there  is  not  a  shred 
of  external  evidence.  The  story  of  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus,  as  told  by  the  evan- 
gelists, is  somewhat  confused  in  its  details, 
as  one  might  expect  under  such  over- 
whelming circumstances.  The  witnesses 
were  bewildered,  and  they  did  not  see  how 
things  stood  together ;  but,  taking  the  point 
of  view  maintained  from  the  beginning 
in  this  book,  everything  becomes  clear. 
Jesus  was  the  outcome  of  the  specific 
organism  of  revelation.  He  was  the  man 
of  the  Logos.  There  was  in  him  an  age- 
long conservation  of  psychic  energy.  He 
was,  moreover,  by  his  own  will  a  spotless 
and  perfect  organ  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  and 
the  organ  of  spiritual  vitality,  life  and  res- 
urrection for  us  all.  "  I  am  the  Resurrec- 
tion and  the  Life,"  he  said.  He  predicted 
that  his  body  would  not  remain  in  the 
tomb.  Had  it  remained  there  the  authori- 
ties would  have  confronted  the  Christians 
with  it.  The  life  returned  to  it,  reanimated 
it,  working  at  the  very  first  only  slight 
changes  in  it,  so  that  his  disciples  were, 
after  a  little,  able  to  recognize  it.     Thus 


338  THE  RESURRECTION. 

his  physical  organism  continued  a  per- 
fect medium  for  the  radiation  of  his 
spirit.  It  put  his  friends  in  touch  with 
him  to  the  last,  but  was  gradually  meta- 
morphosed by  the  great  psychic  law  of 
subordination  to  the  spirit,  until  it  as- 
cended into  the  heavens.  Metamorphosis 
is  one  of  the  great  facts  of  physical  life  by 
which  progress  is  made  from  lower  to 
higher  forms  of  vitality.  Spiritual  meta- 
morphosis is  the  teaching  of  the  resurrec- 
tion. This  was  the  light  of  joy  that  burst 
upon  the  heathen  world  with  the  gospel. 
The  human  life  itself  was  to  rise  again 
through  Christ.  The  lost  dear  ones  were 
to  be  restored  to  sense  and  touch  as  Jesus 
was.  There  is  in  this  an  inherent  proba- 
bility. It  is  in  accordance  with  the  uni- 
formity of  nature  and  the  law  of  evolution. 
An  immaterial  immortality  is  actually 
more  opposed  to  evolution  and  to  the  uni- 
formity of  nature  than  a  miracle  would  be, 
and,  as  has  been  said,  there  is  not  one  shred 
of  external  evidence  in  its  favor.  Even 
the  philosophy  on  which  it  rests  is  hope- 
lessly confused,  and  opposed  to  modern 
psychology.     Yet    it    will    be  a  herculean 


THE  RESURRECTION.  339 

task  to  make  men  see  the  thought  of 
Jesus,  so  entirely  have  the  older  theolo- 
gians covered  it  up  with  the  philosophy  of 
the  Greeks  and  schoolmen. 

Paul,  however,  understood  it;  his  con- 
ception was  naturalistic.  In  his  first  letter 
to  the  Corinthian  church  he  defines  the 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  as  he  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  presenting  it.  He 
takes  up  the  current  objection  of  his  day 
to  a  bodily  resurrection.  "  How  are  the 
dead  raised,  and  with  what  body  do  they 
come }  "  "  Thou  fool,"  he  says,  "  this  thing 
is  transpiring  before  you  in  nature  ;  it  is 
analogous  to  the  sowing  of  a  seed."  Here 
the  apostle  is  singularly  true  to  life,  for  the 
sowinsf  of  a  seed  is  the  cultivation  of  an 
underground  organ  with  reference  to  its 
resurrection  as  an  aerial  organ.  But  he 
goes  on :  "  Thou  sowest  not  the  body  that 
shall  be,  but  bare  grain,  it  may  chance  of 
wheat,  or  of  some  other  grain,"  yet  each 
kind  has  its  own  resurrection  body  organ- 
ized by  its  own  life.  Organized  matter  is 
not  all  of  the  same  type ;  even  here  in  this 
world  there  is  more  than  one  kind  of  flesh, 
more  than  one  variety  of  matter,  arranged 


340  THE  RESURRECTION. 

by  life.  So  likewise  in  God's  universe 
there  is  a  psychic  body  organized  by  the 
animal  life,  and  there  is  also  a  celestial 
body,  a  subtler  organic  product,  organized 
by  the  spiritualized  life. 

This  accords,  he  avers,  with  the  Scrip- 
ture. "  The  first  type-man  developed  into 
a  living  Psyche ;  the  last  type-man  devel- 
oped into  a  life-giving  spirit."  The  ordi- 
nary corruptible  flesh  and  blood,  tainted  by 
the  degeneracies  of  the  Psyche,  is  not  able 
to  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  Man's 
body,  like  his  soul,  must  be  developed  and 
reorganized  by  the  spiritual  vitality  of  the 
Christ.  This  must  be  effected  by  the 
coordination  of  the  life  with  Christ's  life, 
and  the  subjection  of  it  to  Christ's  law. 
If  our  culture  in  this  world  corresponds  to 
Christ's,  we  shall  be  like  him.  "  If  we  be 
planted  in  the  likeness  of  his  death,  we 
shall  be  also  in  the  likeness  of  his  resur- 
rection." If  our  life,  which  is  the  organic 
.principle  of  our  bodies,  takes  on  the  sem- 
blance and  type  of  Christ's  sacrificial  life, 
then  by  the  universal  law  of  nature  our 
bodies  must  undergo  a  spiritual  metamor- 
phosis   after    death.     We    shall    bear    the 


THE  RESURRECTION.  341 

image  of  the  heavenly.  Death  will  be 
swallowed  up  in  victory.  Nothing  could 
be  more  naturalistic  than  this  conception ; 
but,  unless  we  grasp  Paul's  evolutionary 
idea  of  a  human  life  developing  from 
the  Psyche  to  the  organic  or  life-giving 
Pneuma,  we  are  entirely  at  sea  in  regard 
to  his  views  of  the  resurrection.  On  no 
other  interpretation  can  his  language  be 
explained ;  but  while  he  conceives  of  the 
resurrection  after  this  naturalistic  fashion, 
it  is  nevertheless  to  his  mind  a  super- 
natural event,  an  act  of  God's  sovereign 
will  more  majestic  than  any  miracle. 
This,  however,  is  because  Paul,  like  Jesus, 
regarded  nature  itself  as  supernatural. 
Thus,  to  his  mind,  all  nature's  resurrec- 
tions are  the  work  of  God.  Even  when 
the  seed  puts  forth  its  new  body,  it  is  a 
divine  act.  "  God  giveth  it  a  body,"  he 
says,  "  and  to  every  seed  its  own  body." 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE    CHRIST    UNIVERSEo 

We  have  considered  Christ's  teachings 
with  regard  to  the  law,  source,  stem,  and 
kingdom  of  righteousness ;  also  in  regard 
to  the  knowledge  of  God,  the  laws  of  per- 
ception and  revelation,  and  finally  the  spe- 
cific organism  of  revelation. 

As  we  have  progressed,  it  has  become 
more  and  more  evident  that  all  Christ's 
teachings  on  these  points  stand  together 
in  one  consistent  idea  of  the  supernatural. 
Futhermore,  this  conception  of  the  super- 
natural is  that  of  a  power  correlated 
throughout  with  the  material  world,  and 
more  and  more  perfectly  to  be  revealed  in 
it  by  a  progressive  series  of  organic  coor- 
dinations. In  other  words,  Christ's  life  and 
teaching  point  to  a  certain  definite  struc- 
ture of  the  universe.  In  his  celebrated 
Romanes  address,  Mr.  Huxley  speaks  of 
this  problem  of    the   universe  as  yet    un- 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  343 

solved.  He  mentions  the  attempts  that 
have  been  made  at  its  solution,  including 
Buddha's,  whose  theory  seems  to  him  the 
cleverest,  but  he  entirely  ignores  Jesus. 
Probably  this  is  due  to  the  fact  that  Jesus 
did  not  solve  the  problem  as  a  scientist 
or  philosopher  would.  His  immediate  ob- 
ject was  not  to  give  men  a  theory  or  a 
dogma,  or  even  to  exploit  the  facts  of  che 
universe,  but  to  develop  perception.  This 
he  did  by  laying  hold  of  the  human  life, 
focalizing  it,  purifying  it,  and  bringing 
out  its  inherent  correspondences  with  the 
spiritual  world.  This  last  he  accomplished 
by  extending  the  divine  visions,  and  fulfill- 
ing the  drama  of  the  Old  Testament  or- 
ganism. Thus,  by  clear,  practical  interpre- 
tative visions  of  heaven,  he  awoke  the 
latent  kinship  with  heaven.  But  his  vis- 
ions were  not  panoramic ;  they  were  sub- 
ordinated to  the  end  in  view.  They  shone 
directly  upon  the  path  of  spiritual  pro- 
gress, they  illuminated  the  next  step.  Thus, 
too,  by  vivid  glimpses  of  a  false  supernat- 
uraiism,  he  drew  men  back  from  following 
it.  But  it  was  impossible  to  advance  in  the 
life  of  Christ  without  gaining  steadily  in  co- 


344  THE   CHRIST    UNIVERSE. 

herent  perception.  Impossible  also  was  it 
to  contemplate  such  suggestive  visions  or 
teachings  as  his,  without  recognizing  their 
innate  coherence  and  application  ;  and  so 
it  came  to  pass  that,  face  to  face  with  the 
advancing  life  of  Christianity,  there  loomed 
up  before  the  minds  of  its  leaders,  like 
John  and  Paul,  the  gigantic  outlines  of  a 
Christ  universe,  —  a  universe  that  must  con- 
tinue to  grow  as  the  Christian  life  grows, 
for  life  is  itself  perceptive. 

It  is,  moreover,  quite  practicable  to  con- 
struct this  Christ  universe  in  its  great 
outlines  ;  for  it  is  all  contained  in  Christ's 
idea  that  man  is  the  son  of  God,  or  the 
supernatural  in  embryo. 

This  is  the  germ  from  which  the  whole 
of  Christianity  is  developed.  The  instant 
we  take  our  position  outside  of  it,  we  are 
outside  of  Christianity,  and  are  in  fact 
anti-Christian.  It  is  the  one  intellectual 
point  in  regard  to  which  Christianity  can 
make  no  concession.  In  all  his  teaching 
Jesus  was  strictly  consistent  with  it,  nor 
did  he  shrink  from  applying  its  utter- 
most lo2:ical  conclusions  to  nature  and  the 
Scriptures.     For  instance,  when  the  Phar- 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE,  345 

isees  accused  him  of  blaspheming  because 
he  said  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  he  quoted 
that  passage  in  the  Old  Testament,  "  I 
have  said  ye  are  gods."  "  If,"  said  Jesus, 
"He  called  them  gods  to  whom  the  Word 
of  God  came,  and  the  Scripture  cannot  be 
broken,  say  ye  of  him  whom  the  Father 
hath  sanctified  and  sent  into  the  world, 
Thou  blasphemest,  because  he  said,  I  am 
the  Son  of  God  ?  "  In  other  words,  Jesus 
accepts  it  as  an  immutable  principle  of  the 
Scripture  and  of  nature,  that  those  to 
whom  the  word  of  God  came  belonged  to 
the  same  category  with  God ;  this  applied 
even  to  such  crude  kind  of  manhood  as 
the  ancient  Israel ;  therefore,  a  fortiori,  it 
applied  to  the  Divine  Organ  specifically 
selected.  Then,  again,  when  the  Saddu- 
cees  challenged  him  to  furnish  proof  of 
the  resurrection  from  the  Old  Testament, 
Jesus  simply  quoted  that  passage,  "  I  am 
the  God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and  of  Ja- 
cob." "  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead," 
he  added,  "  but  of  the  livino^."  In  other 
words,  to  be  a  man's  God  is  to  be  in  living 
reciprocity  with  him.  The  two  must  stand 
together  in  one  vital  element,  or  they  could 


346  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

not  exercise  such  a  reciprocity.  If  after  a 
man's  death  Jehovah  could  still  say,  I  am 
his  God,  that  certified  that  the  man  was 
sharing  God's  eternity.  Death  must  there- 
fore mean  the  progress,  not  the  cessation, 
of  human  life :  it  is  one  of  those  metamor- 
phoses by  which  an  embryo  advances  to- 
ward its  completer  stage,  —  this,  in  man's 
case,  being  a  stage  of  more  perfect  corre- 
spondence to  God. 

In  fact,  Jesus  proceeds  to  assert  this  ;  for, 
the  Sadducees  having  brought  up  a  resur- 
rection problem  in  the  case  of  a  man  with 
seven  wives,  and  challenged  him  to  show 
how  that  status  could  be  made  to  harmo- 
nize with  the  heavenly  world,  Jesus  de- 
clares that  the  resurrection  state  is  not  a 
physical  repetition  of  this,  but  an  emer- 
gence from  embryonic  conditions,  such  as 
sex,  into  complete  life.  They  shall  be 
equal  with  the  angels,  he  declares.  The 
word  "  angel "  was  somewhat  vague,  but  it 
certainly  stood  for  a  perfected  spiritual  ex- 
istence, and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  did  to 
some  extent  define  that  existence ;  for  it 
meant  literally  "  a  messenger,"  and  is  ap- 
plied in  the  gospels  to  any  personal  agent 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  347 

of  communication.  For  example,  it  is  said 
that  John  the  Baptist  sent  angels  to  Jesus. 
The  holy  angels,  or  messengers  of  God, 
were  always  the  personal  organs  of  the  Di- 
vine Word.  The  saying  of  Jesus,  there- 
fore, that  man  in  his  complete  estate  is  to 
be  equal  to  the  messengers  of  the  Word, 
implies  necessarily  that  man  is  now  an  un- 
developed organ  of  that  same  Word,  an 
embryo  spirit.  By  fixing  our  eye,  then,  like 
Jesus,  upon  these  two  centres  of  the  uni- 
verse, ujDon  God  the  Infinite  Spirit  and 
upon  man  the  embryo  spirit,  we  can  best 
understand  its  structure  and  movement. 
Plainly,  God  and  man  correspond  to  one 
another,  and  all  the  cosmic  movements 
and  facts  must  relate  to  the  spiritual  de- 
velopment of  the  embryo,  and  particularly 
to  the  increase  of  its  correspondence  to 
God. 

This  is  the  case  in  the  material  world ; 
everything  is  coordinated  with,  moves  with 
the  embryo,  carrying  it  forward  into  corre- 
spondence with  its  type  and  central  organ, 
whether  it  be  the  germ  of  a  planet  or  of  an 
orange.  It  is  true  that  not  all  oranges  are 
in  the  germinating  stage  at  once,  but  the 


348  THE   CHRIST    UNIVERSE. 

germinating  movement  represents  nature 
as  a  whole.  Nature  is  everywhere  germi- 
nating, advancing  to  complete  stages,  and 
then  perishing,  only  to  be  reproduced 
through  death,  and  to  complete  the  same 
circle  again.  In  man,  however,  we  find, 
according  to  Christ,  a  permanent  issue  of 
this  cosmic  movement,  an  embryo  of  spirit- 
ual life,  an  heir  of  eternity,  a  true  finality. 
It  was  with  perfect  reason,  therefore,  that 
Jesus  pictured  the  cosmic  process  as  corre- 
sponding to  him,  and  a  glance  at  the  Gos- 
pels shows  that  this  is  always  the  position 
of  Jesus.  The  world,  according  to  him, 
moves  with  man's  moral  progress ;  devel- 
ops in  divine  significance  as  man  develops 
in  divine  likeness  ;  shares  man's  spiritual 
crises,  his  judgment,  and  his  metamorpho- 
sis, —  not  because  of  any  partiality  for 
man,  but  because  man  is  a  spiritual  embryo 
and  the  law  of  the  cosmos  is  the  develop- 
ment of  spiritual  life.  It  is  reasonable, 
therefore,  that  we  should,  like  Jesus,  argue 
from  the  embryo  to  the  laws  and  facts  of 
the  cosmos.  I  do  not  mean  that  one  is  to 
build  up  the  cosmos  deductively  by  such  a 
process  alone,  but  that   it  furnishes  us  a 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  349 

standard  by  which  to  test  spiritual  vis- 
ions. We  decide  the  question,  for  exam- 
ple, whether  we  have  seen  a  reality,  or  en- 
countered an  optical  illusion,  by  putting 
to  ourselves  that  other  question.  Does  it 
stand  together  with  known  facts  ?  In  de- 
claring the  law  of  the  universe  to  be  spirit- 
ual law,  and  that  law  to  be  the  develop- 
ment of  the  embryo  spirit,  Jesus  has  given 
us  a  solid  basis,  because  it  stands  together 
with  what  we  already  know,  and  the  inevi- 
table deductions  from  it  stand  together 
with  the  facts  of  his  spiritual  vision  which 
are  disclosed  in  the  New  Testament. 

Let  us  then,  for  a  moment,  study  the 
embryo,  with  the  idea  of  getting  a  firmer 
grasp  on  two  things:  ist.  What  is  the 
supernatural  ?  2d.  What  are  the  condi- 
tions of  development  for  the  embryo  ? 

ist.  What  is  the  supernatural  .f*  Obvi- 
ously we  must  give  it  a  broader  mean- 
ing than  it  has  had  hitherto.  We  must 
make  it  include  certain  powers  that  are 
germinant  in  man ;  we  must  recognize 
more  practically  the  fact  presented  by 
Jesus  and  his  disciples,  that  the  supernat- 
ural and  spiritual  are  the  same  thing ;  we 


350  THE    CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

must  acknowledge,  as  Jesus  did,  that  the 
divine  in  man  is  not  a  figure  of  speech, 
but  an  actuality.  At  the  same  time  we 
must  distinguish  sharply  between  God  the 
Father  and  man  the  child,  —  between  the 
self-existent  Fount  of  supernatural  life  and 
an  embryo  supernatural  whose  spiritual 
life  and  development  depend  on  constant 
coordination  with  God's  life  (even  as  the 
branch  can  bring  forth  fruit  only  as  it 
abides  in  the  vine).  Then  we  must  recog- 
nize another  fact, —  that  a  spirit  is  not  solely 
an  immaterial  force ;  quite  the  contrary. 
The  first  thing  that  strikes  us,  as  we  study 
man's  life,  is  its  organic  quality.  Human 
life  is  immanent  in  matter :  it  resides  in 
organs  and  exercises  its  vitalities  through 
them ;  it  is  constitutionally  adapted  to  this 
mode  of  existence.  Indeed,  the  perfect 
correspondence  between  matter  and  life  — 
the  naturalness,  for  instance,  with  which 
life  lays  hold  of  matter,  blends  with  it, 
builds  it  up  into  organic  structures,  vital- 
izes it,  and  radiates  through  it  —  is  the 
wonder  of  the  universe.  True,  it  may  be 
said  that  it  is  the  lower  and  psychic  life 
which  has  this  constitutional  relationship 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  35 1 

to  the  material  world,  and  that  the  more 
transcendental  spirit  is  antagonistic  to 
matter,  and  pants  to  be  free  from  it.  But 
no  human  spirit,  not  even  the  greatest  and 
holiest,  ever  developed  or  existed,  save  as 
an  organic  life. 

Doubtless  it  is  the  spirit  that  constitutes 
the  supernatural  in  us,  but  it  is  impossible 
to  separate  the  spirit  from  that  class  of 
powers,  inherent  in  the  Logos  or  Psyche, 
through  which  the  spirit  develops,  be- 
comes creative  and  exercises  dominion 
over  the  physical  realm.  Indeed,  it  is  this 
power  of  the  Word,  this  power  to  create 
and  rule,  which,  according  to  the  book  of 
Genesis  and  human  consciousness  gen- 
erally, makes  man  the  image  of  God. 
Strip  God  of  the  Logos  and  he  is  no 
longer  the  Creator,  the  Upholder  and  the 
Sovereign  of  the  world ;  he  is  not  the  Liv- 
ino^  God ;  he  has  nothino;  to  do  with 
practical  life ;  he  dwells  apart  in  a  per- 
petual Nirvana.  It  is  the  Logos  that 
makes  him  our  God.  It  is  the  subordina- 
tion of  the  Psyche  to  the  spirit  that  makes 
him  the  fount  of  virtue.  In  short,  the  pa- 
rental   and    the   embryo    life    correspond. 


352  THE   CHRIST    UNIVERSE. 

The  embryo  also  is  both  spirit  and  logos, 
and  has  always  this  constitutional  relation- 
ship to  matter. 

It  is  true  we  must  draw  a  distinction 
here  ;  it  is  not  necessary  to  our  concep- 
tion of  a  spirit  that  it  should  be  embodied, 
as  man  is,  in  the  sense  of  being  bound  to 
a  certain  set  of  vital  organs.  Certainly 
this  is  not  the  case  with  God.  The  much- 
talked-of  divine  immanence  does  not  mean 
that  God  is  so  limited  to  his  universe  as 
to  be  necessitated  by  it,  or  to  necessitate 
it,  any  further  than  he  chooses.  There  is 
in  God's  vitality  no  subliminal  or  necessi- 
tated region.  His  relation  to  matter  i?  free 
throughout ;  at  least  such  is  the  teaching 
of  Christ.  He  is  not  compelled,  Christ 
tells  us,  to  proceed  according  to  law. 
With  him  all  things  are  possible.  His 
limitations  correspond  to  man's,  but  tney 
are  by  his  own  choice.  He  is  able  out  of 
these  stones  to  raise  up  children  unto 
Abraham.  He  is  able  anywhere  to  em- 
body himself  or  not,  as  he  will,  —  to  organ- 
ize and  vitalize  matter  as  he  will.  Matter 
is,  in  fact,  the  natural  outcome,  creation, 
expression  of  the  Logos.     It  is  quite  con- 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  353 

ceivable,  therefore,  that,  in  the  progress  of 
the  embryo  supernatural,  it  should  so  far 
reach  correspondence  with  God  as  to  be 
perfectly  free  ;  having  a  natural  relation  to 
matter,  and  a  natural  power  for  organizing 
it  and  inhabiting  it,  without  being  its  pris- 
oner. There  may  be,  in  fact,  as  Jesus 
certainly  seemed  to  imply,  an  order  of 
spirits  that  are  able  to  enter  into  and 
possess  other  bodies  than  their  own  ;  there 
may  be,  as  the  visions  of  Jesus  and  of  the 
prophets  represent,  angels  that  are  able  to 
effect  mighty  changes  in  matter,  to  bring 
about  vast  coordinations,  and  to  embody 
themselves  in  human  form.  For  instance, 
it  is  not  unreasonable  that  a  spirit,  in  a 
more  advanced  stage  of  development  than 
man,  should  have  appeared  to  Jesus  in  the 
wilderness  and  ministered  to  his  physical 
necessities ;  or  that  an  angel  should  have 
rolled  away  the  door  of  the  sepulchre,  or, 
for  that  matter,  that  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
should  have  done  any  of  those  wonders 
recorded  in  the  Old  Testament.  It  is  sim- 
ply a  question  of  what  constitutes  the  su- 
pernatural. If  we  accept  Christ's  teaching 
that  man  is  the  embryo  supernatural,  and 


354  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

if  development  means  development  in  or- 
ganic power,  and  in  correspondence  to 
God,  and  in  pov/er  to  be  God's  messenger 
then  it  is  clear  that  the  supernatural  is  a 
personal  organic  Force,  perfectly  related 
to  nature,  adapted  to  organizing  it,  resid- 
ing in  it,  penetrating  it,  and  coordinating 
its  forces  ad  infinihim  for  the  purposes  of 
spiritual  manifestation. 

It  is  perfectly  natural,  that  is,  perfectly 
in  accordance  with  the  structure  of  such  a 
universe,  that  God  should  work  a  mira- 
cle if  there  were  occasion  for  it;  if,  in 
other  words,  it  were  important  to  the  spir- 
itual manifestation  of  himself,  or  to  the 
increased  correspondence  of  man  to  God. 
And  it  is  entirely  in  accord  with  the  struc- 
ture of  the  universe  that  there  should  be 
free  spirits  or  organic  powers,  completely 
developed  organs  of  God's  Logos,  capable 
of  such  large  coordinations  and  free  em- 
bodiments as  are  some  day  to  be  within 
our  own  power,  when  we  shall  be  "  equal 
with  the  angels."  Much  misconception  of 
the  supernatural  has  been  caused  by  our 
failure  clearly  to  identify  it  with  the  spirit, 
and  to  see  that  the   spirit  necessarily  in- 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  355 

eluded  the  Logos  or  Psyehe,  and  that 
through  this  latter  power  it  is  eternally 
related  to  matter ;  in  fact,  that  matter  it- 
self is  not  that  crude  thing  that  we  have 
conceived  it  to  be,  but  something  infinitely 
subtle,  infinitely  plastic,  progressive,  and 
capable  of  spiritualization,  or  transfusion 
with  spiritual  force,  and,  in  many  myri- 
ads of  its  qualities  and  aspects,  invisible 
and  intangible  to  us.  In  fact  we  look  out 
upon  matter  through  the  narrow  loop-holes 
of  a  few  organs,  and  catch  but  an  exceed- 
ing few  of  its  infinite  vibrations.  Myriads 
of  spirits  clothed  in  celestial  bodies  might 
crowd  round  about  us,  and  even  touch  us, 
without  our  once  perceiving  their  pres- 
ence ;  they  might  wield  the  mightiest  of 
material  forces  in  our  behalf,  and  yet  we 
not  know  it,  so  little  of  this  infinitely 
varied  and  subtle  thing  called  matter  are 
we  able  to  detect  with  our  present  organs. 
Could  those  organs  for  one  moment  be 
supplemented,  the  world  of  matter  would 
be  vastly  changed  to  us  ;  perchance  "  the 
whole  mount  w^ould  be  full  of  horses  and 
chariots  of  fire  round  about." 

Again,  taking   this   relationship  of  the 


356  THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

supernatural  to  matter,  and  the  perfect  cor- 
respondence of  matter  to  it,  it  is  not  diffi- 
cult to  see  why  Christ  should  say,  "  In  my 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions ; "  nor 
why  he  should  speak  of  Paradise,  or  of  the 
presence  of  God  and  of  the  holy  angels,  or 
of  ascending  to  heaven.  While  it  is  true 
that,  in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word,  the 
supernatural  or  heavenly  world  is  simply 
the  spiritual  life,  it  is  just  as  true,  accord- 
ing to  Christ,  that  the  progress  of  the 
material  universe  corresponds  to  the  de- 
velopment of  the  spiritual  embryo.  The 
world  of  the  mastodon  corresponded  to 
the  mastodon.  Man's  world  corresponds 
to  man.  The  planet  Mars  corresponds 
to  whatever  existence  may  be  on  it.  Al- 
though this  is  one  universe  developing  in 
unity,  there  are  yet,  even  in  this  world, 
different  stages  of  development,  with  differ- 
ent environments  corresponding  to  them. 
Why  should  there  not  be  in  God's  world 
a  heaven  of  heavens,  corresponding  in  its 
environment  to  those  glorified  and  per- 
fected spirits  who  have  trod  faithfully  the 
pathway  of  spiritual  development  until 
they  have  become  godlike?     And  if  the 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  357 

pathway  of  spiritual  development  be  a 
matter  of  choice,  and  degenerate  evolution 
a  possibility,  why  should  there  not  be,  such 
as  Christ  implied,  fallen  and  wicked  spirits, 
who  kept  not  even  "  their  first  estate,"  the 
conditions  to  which'  they  had  already  at- 
tained, who  preferred  the  coarser  psychic, 
passional  uses  of  matter,  the  immanent  to 
the  transcendent  joys,  and  who,  thus  de- 
grading themselves,  have  sunk  into  pas- 
sional organic  powers,  — gods  of  this  world, 
radiating  a  subde  animalism,  generating  a 
magnetic  field  in  which  not  only  wicked 
spirits  but  wicked  men  and  women,  and 
brutes,  yea,  even  swine,  stand  together 
and  are  coordinated?  May  it  not  be? 
Certainly  it  is  quite  in  accordance  with 
the  nature  of  things  that  there  should  be 
a  supernatural  kingdom  of  darkness,  as 
Christ  taught,  a  kingdom  of  Satan,  or  of 
the  Evil  One.  For,  as  has  already  been 
seen,  one  of  the  most  striking  character- 
istics of  the  human  spirit  is  its  power  to 
radiate  through  the  logos  or  Psyche  a 
life-force  or  Pneuma  that  combines  in  it- 
self the  subtle  elements  of  the  transcend- 
ent spirit  and  the  magnetic  word.     Thus 


358  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

the  human  spirit  has  what  we  call  a  sphere 
of  influence.  We  see  grand  passional  per- 
sonalities who  hold  within  the  radius  of 
their  projected  life  multitudes  of  human 
satellites,  —  nay,  imperial  spirits  there  are 
who  thus  create  and  rule  empires.  Multi- 
tudes sit  together  in  the  magnetic  sphere 
of  one  man's  Pneuma ;  for  example,  all  the 
individualities,  facts,  and  forces  of  France 
for  a  generation  were  thus  coordinated, 
erected  into  a  dominion,  and  carried  for- 
ward by  the  Pneuma  of  Napoleon. 

This  is  what  Christ  calls  "  being  in  a 
person."  It  applies  to  all  personality.  He 
declares  himself  to  be  in  the  Father,  that 
is,  in  the  sphere  of  the  Father's  spirit,  in 
the  current  of  his  personal  influence.  He 
commands  his  disciples,  "  Abide  in  me," 
with  the  same  significance.  Those  who 
abide  in  him  are  a  unity,  a  kingdom ;  the 
members  are  organs  of  Christ.  As  the 
apostle  says,  they  all  drink  of  his  spirit, 
they  share  his  vitalities.  This  is  what  the 
apostles  mean  by  "  being  in  Christ."  The 
spirit  of  a  person  constituted,  to  their 
minds,  not  merely  a  radiated  force,  but  a 
vital    element,   like  air  or  light,  a  super- 


THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE.  359 

natural  heaven  in  which  a  sovereign  per- 
sonaHty  reigned.  Thus  the  apostle  speaks 
of  the  Prince  of  the  power  of  the  ether, 
or  lower  atmosphere,  taking  the  Greek 
word  for  the  coarser  element  as  the  type 
of  a  coarser  personal  atmosphere.  So,  too, 
the  apostle  speaks  of  the  whole  world  as 
lying  in  the  wicked  one,  that  is,  human 
society  in  his  day  was  passively  given  over 
to  the  influence,  and  so  lay  helplessly  in 
the  sphere,  of  a  wicked  spiritual  force. 
The  radiated  spirit  of  man  is  aggressive, 
it  is  charged  not  only  with  active  germs 
of  thought,  but  also  with  sensibility, — 
often  with  passion,  whose  vibrations  pass 
through  other  souls  like  shocks  of  elec- 
tricity. Some  personalities  are  conta- 
gious ;  one  can  scarce  escape  being  car- 
ried into  their  magnetic  field.  Some  are 
coarsely  yet  powerfully  attractive,  like  hu- 
man loadstones ;  they  drag  one  as  with 
chains  of  darkness  against  the  force  of 
conscience  and  will ;  they  cast  about  the 
soul  unholy  shadows ;  they  shut  out  the 
all-environing  light  of  God,  the  pure  and 
all-embracing  atmosphere  of  his  Spirit. 
To    be    attacked    by    such    a    force,   em- 


36o  THE    CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

bodying  itself  through  a  human  form, 
through  some  symbol  of  nature,  some  en- 
vironment, significant  of  animal  passion,  — 
that  is  temptation.  Its  external  form  may 
be  physical,  its  spell  is  supernatural  and 
spiritual.  To  enter  into  temptation  is  to 
advance  within  that  terrible  sphere.  We 
wrong  the  creation  of  God,  we  do  injus- 
tice to  the  animal  world,  nay,  we  are  ab- 
solutely unphilosophic,  when  we  attribute 
our  sins  altogether  to  the  body,  our  per- 
versities to  matter,  and  our  lust  to  the 
brute  that  preceded  us.  Animals  have 
strong,  healthy  appetites,  but  they  are 
more  subservient  than  we  are  to  the  law 
of  their  structure.  They  are  free  from  ex- 
cessive lust,  avarice,  or  designing  malice. 
These  characteristics  demand  the  creative 
imagination  of  the  Spirit.  Temptation  is  a 
spiritual,  not  a  material,  product.  And  this 
is  the  real  significance  of  Christ's  teach- 
ing concerning  evil  spirits.  To  sum  up 
matters,  we  see  that  the  visions  and  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  concerning  the  supernatural 
world  are  perfectly  coherent.  They  stand 
together  with  his  entirely  reasonable  posi- 
tion that  man  is  the  supernatural  embryo. 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  361 

We  come  now  to  the  second  point,  the 
conditions  for  the  evolution  of  the  embryo  ; 
and  here  we  see  the  meaning:  of  the  other- 
wise  inexplicable  cycle  of  the  cosrhos,  a 
cycle  which  is  well  represented,  as  Mr. 
Huxley  has  said,  by  the  bean-stalk,  which 
develops  out  of  the  earth  from  its  seed, 
only  to  drop  another  seed  which  shall 
in  its  turn  develop  another  bean-stalk. 
Through  vast  ages  a  globe  of  matter  is 
evolved,  which,  after  other  long  ages,  gives 
birth  to  vegetative  life,  which  issues  into 
animal  life,  which  issues  into  human  life, 
which  in  its  turn,  after  untold  suffering 
and  struggle,  reproduces  itself  and  then 
turns  to  dust ;  an  interminable  cycle  of  de- 
velopment, of  survival  through  a  battle  for 
existence,  and  of  death.  But  if  we  take 
man  to  be  what  Christ  out  of  his  own 
consciousness  testified  him  to  be,  the  em- 
bryo supernatural,  then  at  this  point  the 
cosmic  process  issues  in  something.  Here 
we  have  an  end  worth  interminable  cycles, 
whatever  their  sufferings,  struggles,  or 
cataclysms ;  for  in  each  member  of  the  hu- 
man race  we  have  a  seed  of  glory  and  im- 
mortality, which  may  be  so  fructified  from 


362  THE    CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

above  as  to  become  both  a  son  and  heir 
of  God.  Then,  as  already  indicated,  mat- 
ter, instead  of  being  that  coarse  and  anti- 
spiritual  substance  that  v/e  have  conceived 
it  to  be,  is  the  matrix  of  the  developing 
spirit,  penetrable  in  its  every  atom  by  the 
Divine  Logos.  Ground  up  by  ocean  and 
by  glacier,  worked  over  by  the  earth-worm, 
elaborated  by  plant-life,  it  is  carried  up 
thus  into  subtler  forms,  until  it  is  adapted 
to  the  organic  force  of  the  human  spirit; 
then  we  give  it  the  name  of  "  food."  A 
wonderful,  subtle  thing  it  is,  as  we  see  it 
thus  filled  with  vital  adaptations,  hanging 
upon  a  peach  or  apple  bough,  or  swaying 
on  the  end  of  a  wheat-stalk.  Taken  by 
man  into  his  body,  it  furnishes  a  matrix 
first  of  all  for  his  organic  force,  then  for 
his  mechanical.  It  accompanies  the  hu- 
man spirit  in  its  upward  progress,  taking 
on  finer  and  subtler  forms,  the  tissue  of 
the  thinking  brain,  the  nerve  and  pupil  of 
the  sparkling  eye.  It  generates  nerve 
force,  becomes  the  subtle  vehicle  of  emo- 
tion and  of  speech. 

Then,  as  it  accompanies  the  organic  life 
upward  from  the  earth-worm  to  the  man, 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  363 

it  becomes  not  only  the  matrix  of  organic 
but  of  spiritual  life,  —  bread  of  heaven, 
Jesus  called  it,  for  it  is  the  vehicle  of 
heavenly  vitalities. 

Thus  a  great  soul,  a  true  revelator,  not 
only  furnishes  in  his  own  personal  embodi- 
ment bread  that  comes  down  from  heaven, 
but  he  creates  a  heavenly  world,  full  of 
spiritual  sustenance  and  stimulus  to  other 
men,  —  a  city  of  God  full  of  divine  glory 
and  everlasting  joy,  an  extension  of  Para- 
dise. Thus  we  have  in  the  process  of  evo- 
lution tw^o  great  movements.  First,  the 
cosmic,  of  which  scientists  tell  us,  devel- 
oping in  long  cycles,  only  to  perish.  Yet 
in  all  this  bean-stalk  cosmic  cycle  there  is 
one  permanent,  progressive  movement. 
There  is  a  better  matrix  beins:  formed  for 
the  embryo  spirit ;  more  soil  worked  over 
by  earth-worms  and  by  vegetative  life  ;  bet- 
ter methods  of  cultivation,  better  human 
bodies,  better  organic  force  in  those  bodies, 
better  human  stock  every  way ;  wider  and 
better  unities,  social  and  civic;  better 
knowledge  by  the  human  race  of  itself, 
better  possession  of  itself  and  its  own  great 
race  organs  through  historic  science,  closer 


364  THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

material  coordination  by  railroads  and 
electricity;  more  stock  out  of  which  to 
make  mind  and  spirit  food,  so  that  the 
individual  human  life  finds  itself  continu- 
ally with  a  better  outfit  at  the  start  in  the 
direction  of  spiritual  development.  And 
particularly  has  the  individual  life  of  to- 
day a  much  wider  chance  to  become  an 
organ  of  humanity.  Matter  has  become 
more  and  more  a  medium  of  reciprocity; 
it  tends  more  and  more  toward  the  soli- 
darity of  one  embryo  with  another. 

Furthermore,  as  we  look  back,  we  see  at 
the  first  stage  in  human  development, 
when  the  thing  was  fairly  feasible,  when 
there  was  a  sufficient  matrix  and  sufficient 
coordination  of  the  race  to  make  it  prac- 
tical, we  see  the  Christ  life,  the  spiritual 
man,  the  perfect  revelator,  the  complete 
embodiment  of  the  Divine  Fatherhood,  of 
human  brotherhood,  and  of  man's  sonship ; 
son  of  God,  therefore,  and  son  of  man, 
representing  in  himself  the  root,  stem,  and 
terminal  bud  of  our  corporate  spiritual 
life.  Moving  steadfastly  in  accordance 
with  the  law  of  spiritual  evolution,  he  be- 
comes,   as    Paul   calls    him,   a   life-giving 


THE    CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  365 

spirit ;  he  conquers  in  himself  the  ten- 
dency of  the  animal  man  to  selfish  indi- 
vidualism ;  vanquishes  the  animal  prefer- 
ence for  the  sensual  cosmos,  or  present 
world ;  conquers  the  prince  of  this  world, 
that  is,  the  spiritual  tempter  through  whose 
suggestions  and  coordinations  the  perish- 
able cosmos  allures  or  terrorizes  us ;  over- 
comes our  antagonism  to  the  divine  will 
by  the  superhuman  revelation  of  the  divine 
love  in  his  sufferings  and  death  ;  attains 
to  the  perfected  spiritual  body  of  human- 
ity, and  so  through  the  power  of  that  su- 
pernatural organism  ascends  to  the  throne 
of  God,  to  the  higher  realm  of  spiritual- 
ized matter,  there  to  prepare  a  place  for 
us,  while  at  the  same  time  he  holds  subtle 
contact  with  us  through  his  organic  vital- 

We  find,  in  brief,  that  the  first  condi- 
tion for  the  development  of  the  spiritual 
embryo  is  a  progressive  physical  matrix 
penetrable  by  spiritual  forces. 

The  second  condition  is  a  stem  or  series 
of  stems  for  specific  coordination  with  the 
spiritual  world ;  and  as  we  take  in  this  fact 
we  see  what  is  meant  by  "  mediation,"  and 


366  THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

also  by  "  the  fall  of  man."  The  latter  con- 
ception is  thought  to  be  antagonistic  to 
evolution.  That  depends  on  what  is  meant 
by  it.  If  by  it  is  meant  an  evolution  of  the 
race  altogether  downward,  then  it  certainly 
is  antagonistic,  not  only  to  evolution  but  to 
fact.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  it  means  that 
there  has  been  a  loss  of  coordination  with 
God  at  a  certain  point  in  the  race  de- 
velopment, that  is  entirely  consistent  with 
evolution.  It  is  a  possibility,  peculiarly 
inherent  in  man's  organization.  Man  the 
embryo  is,  like  his  divine  parent,  creative. 
He  can  not  only  to  a  considerable  degree 
choose  between  environments,  but  he  can 
change  his  environment ;  he  can  destroy 
the  effects  of  its  divine  transmissiveness 
by  filling  it  with  his  own  creations ;  he  can 
put  out  his  own  spiritual  eye  by  devoting 
his  sensibilities  to  the  sensual  aspects  of 
matter;  he  can  pervert  the  organism  of 
sonship  within  himself  by  devoting  it  to 
his  own  aofo^randizement.  Thus,  while  he 
continues  to  have  many  of  the  faculties 
that  belong  to  the  Divine  nature,  he  can 
w^hoUy  destroy  his  power  to  hold  recipro- 
city with  God.     He  may  go  on  and  develop 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  367 

certain  spiritual  faculties,  but  he  cannot 
develop  in  the  divine  character ;  his  evolu- 
tion will  cease  to  be  that  of  a  divine  logos, 
or  organ  of  the  spiritual  world.  He  will 
become  instead  an  organ  of  the  perishable 
cosmos,  turning  that  cosmos  from  a  reve- 
latory environment,  a  creation  of  God,  a 
paradise  of  divine  communings,  into  his 
own  creation,  a  seductive  realm,  that  ap- 
peals on  every  side  to  selfishness,  that 
holds  out  on  every  tree  of  its  garden 
the  fruits  of  lust  and  greed  and  ego- 
tism. Having  formed  about  himself  such 
an  environment,  the  development  of  the 
man  within  it  will  be  forward  as  reQ:ards 
intellect,  will-power,  passion,  and  artistic 
creation ;  forward,  too,  as  regards  law,  so- 
cial structure,  and  a  certain  kind  of  self- 
righteous  moral  nature  ;  but  downward  as 
regards  correspondence  to  God  ;  —  down- 
ward out  of  that  love  of  God  w^hich  is  his 
eternal  element  into  self-interest,  which 
should  be  his  transitory  element ;  down- 
ward from  the  transcendent  life  which  is 
his  heaven  to  the  immanent  life  which  is 
sure  to  become  his  hell :  for  that  immanent 
life,  that  psychic,  organic  force  with  its  vast 


368  THE    CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

affinities,  its  hungerings  and  thirstings,  its 
exquisite  sensitiveness,  its  burning  pas- 
sions, is  a  bottomless  abyss  for  the  spirit 
seeking  after  self-gratification,  —  an  abyss 
full  of  flames  and  self-torture,  of  self- 
created  fiends  also.  Nor  is  this  Gehenna 
a  solitary  cell.  No  spirit  falls  alone, —  he 
carries  others  with  him,  whose  sufferings 
add  to  his  own  remorse  and  misery.  He 
finds  himself  preyed  upon  as  well  as 
preying.  The  serpent's  fang  that  he  has 
formed  in  his  own  nature  he  soon  discovers 
in  his  fallen  comrades. 

Such  a  fall  of  man  is  not  only  possible 
consistently  with  evolution,  but  it  is  un- 
mistakably a  fact  of  history.  Not  without 
Q:reat  struo-ofle  does  either  a  nation  or  a 
man  avoid  this  abyss.  Neither  is  there 
anything  inconsistent  with  evolution  in  St. 
Paul's  idea  that  "in  Adam  all  died."  Jt  is 
simply  an  emphasis  of  the  truth  of  the 
solidarity  of  the  race,  and  of  the  fact  that 
wherever  there  is  a  failure  of  spiritual  life 
it  is  due,  largely,  to  the  failure  of  a  grand 
moral  organism,  or  stem  of  humanity. 
Caligula  at  first  held  out  moral  hopes  for 
Rome.     There  was  a  potency  in  him  for 


THE    CHRIST   UNIVERSE.  369 

the  Empire.  But  when  the  son  of  Ger- 
manicus  fell  into  the  abyss  of  sensuality, 
Rome  fell  with  him.  The  term  "  Adam  " 
simply  stands  for  the  first  man  who  had 
heavenly  communings,  in  whom  there  was 
developed  the  pyschic  organism  for  divine 
reciprocity.  His  failure  to  follow  the  law 
of  that  organism,  and  thus  to  develop  into  a 
spiritual  leader,  meant  not  only  the  blight 
of  his  own  life,  but  the  loss  of  him  as  a 
great  organ  of  moral  victory,  a  stem  of 
righteousness  and  supernaturalism  for  the 
race.  The  first  great  organ  of  revelation 
took  the  downward  path.  The  second 
Adam,  that  is,  the  second  man  capable  of 
becoming  a  universal  revelation,  took  the 
upward  path, —  he  followed  the  law  of  rev- 
elation ;  he  triumphed  over  the  passional 
immanent  life,  and  sacrificed  it  to  spiritual 
ends.  He  carried  up  into  the  spiritual 
organism,  for  its  use,  his  whole  vitality. 
There  was  an  absolute  conservation  and 
subjection  of  force  to  the  supernatural. 
As  a  natural  result,  he  conquered  death, 
and  attained  to  the  resurrection  body. 
There  was  nothing  arbitrary  about  this,  — 
nothing  anti-natural,  or  contrary  to  natural 


370  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

law.  If  it  seems  a  miracle,  it  is  simply  be- 
cause it  transcends  our  acquaintance  with 
natural  organisms.  "As  in  Adam  all  died, 
so  in  Christ  shall  all  be  made  alive,"  says 
the  apostle.  It  is  not  necessary  to  con- 
ceive of  Adam  as  a  progenitor  of  the 
whole  race ;  the  idea  of  sinning  in  Adam 
does  not  imply  this  necessarily,  any  more 
than  the  idea  of  our  living  in  Christ  makes 
us  out  the  natural  progeny  of  Christ.  All 
that  the  expression  "  in  "  signifies  is  coor- 
dination. The  race  is  a  solidarity.  Spirit- 
ual biogenesis,  and  indeed  intellectual  bio- 
genesis, are  just  as  organic  as  the  sexual. 
Washington  was  in  truth  the  father  of  his 
country.  In  a  civic  sense  he  begat  us. 
Had  he  failed,  we  should  all  have  failed  in 
him,  and  should  have  lived  under  a  system 
of  failure  and  civic  death  till  God  raised 
up  for  us  some  organ  great  enough  to  lift 
us  into  free  institutions.  The  great  man 
of  the  race  is  the  type  and  intellectual 
begetter  of  smaller  men.  So,  also,  in  the 
expression,  "  in  Adam  all  died,"  we  have 
simply  an  emphasis  of  the  eternal  coor- 
dination between  the  natural  and  moral 
worlds ;  the  two  are  inseparable. 


THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE.  3/1 

Throughout  the  Hebrew  revelation,  sin 
is  conceived  of,  not  merely  as  a  moral 
act,  but  as  a  vast  degenerate  development ; 
a  wrong  act  results  in  the  failure  of  a 
moral  organism.  As  a  result,  the  whole 
environment  —  nay,  the  whole  system  of 
organisms  and  divine  government  —  is 
necessarily  deformed  for  a  time.  This 
constitutes  a  natural  history  of  sin.  God 
gives  a  man  a  beneficent  organism,  full  of 
divine  potencies,  whose  fruition  depends  on 
a  certain  law  of  evolution.  The  man  vio- 
lates that  law,  turns  the  organism  to  his 
own  sensual  uses,  makes  it  an  instrument 
of  the  psychic,  rather  than  the  eternal  life. 
Naturally,  the  organism  evolves  into  a 
plague,  the  fire  and  worm  of  corruption  ap- 
pear in  it.  There  is  a  fine  instrument,  you 
say,  for  a  loving  God  in  the  midst  of  his 
universe  holding  reciprocity  with  all  its 
forces,  breeding  spiritual  death  everywhere. 
Yet  the  loving  God  does  use  it,  takes  it  up 
into  those  large  coordinations  that  we  call 
his  Providence,  and  turns  it  from  a  selfish 
individualistic  plague  into  that  awful  yet 
holy  and  delivering  thing,  a  divine  punish- 
ment.    Thus  sin  becomes  a  kind  of  nat- 


372  THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

ural  order,  a  progressive  system  of  divine 
government,  a  purgatorium,  out  of  which  a 
man  shall  not  come,  perchance,  till  he  has 
paid  his  uttermost  farthing,  —  in  other 
words,  tasted  enough  of  his  plague  to  make 
him  sick  of  it ;  nay,  more,  to  make  of  him 
a  lesson  in  the  world's  education,  a  per- 
sonal object-lesson  sent  by  God  to  hu- 
manity. Happy  is  the  man  who  can  early 
accept  this  lesson,  for  God's  punishments 
have  three  stages,  —  the  reformatory,  in 
which  a  man  is  made  to  taste  his  plague 
that  he  may  be  sick  of  it,  for  when  sin 
tastes  bad  in  the  mouth  virtue  comes  to 
light;  secondly,  the  educational  stage,  in 
which  the  man  is  made  an  object-lesson,  it 
being  the  only  thing  that  God  for  the  time 
can  do  with  him ;  and,  thirdly,  the  stage 
of  perdition,  in  which  he,  having  ceased  to 
be  a  possible  organ  of  divine  humanity, 
can  only  be  separated  like  a  rotten  mem- 
ber, and  given  over  to  the  destructive 
power  which  he  himself  has  unloosed. 
There  is  in  the  Scriptural  conception  of 
God's  punishment  nothing  arbitrary  or 
non-natural ;  it  is  simply  the  natural  sys- 
tem of  sin,  whose  development  the  apostle 


777^   CHRIST   UNIVERSE,  3/3 

struggled  to  express  as  follows :  Lust, 
when  it  hath  conceived,  bringeth  forth  sin, 
and  sin  when  full-grown  bringeth  forth 
death.  God's  government  simply  con- 
sists in  taking  up  into  its  divine  coordina- 
tions whatever  organism  there  is,  and 
using  it,  as  the  invested  property  of  the 
race,  for  that  race's  eternal  benefit. 

Thus  the  natural  system  of  sin  becomes 
under  God's  hand  a  matrix  of  life  for  the 
perishing  conscience ;  but  wherever  there 
is  such  a  natural  system  of  sin,  such  as 
plainly  exists  in  this  world,  the  only  escape 
from  it,  from  its  retroactive  operation  and 
its  painful  method  of  preserving  the  con- 
science, is  through  redemption,  that  is, 
through  an  organism  sufficiently  great  and 
vital,  and  reciprocal  with  the  cosmos,  to 
overcome  its  evil  with  good.  It  is  not 
worth  while  to  dispute  about  terms.  We 
may  call  such  action  vicarious,  or  drop  the 
term  if  we  like  it ;  it  is,  of  course,  true  in  a 
sense.  Whenever  one  organ  of  a  body  is 
made  to  do  the  work  of  other  injured, 
diseased  or  abortive  organs,  in  such  a 
way  as  to  carry  off  the  effects  of  broken 
law,  that    action   is  in    a  sense  vicarious. 


374  THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

And,  in  a  certain  sense,  the  work  of  every 
orean  is  vicarious.  The  work  of  the  stem 
for  the  bough  is  vicarious  ;  so  is  the  work 
of  the  roots.  The  death  of  the  seed  in 
the  ofround  is  vicarious.  But,  as  has  been 
said,  the  word  applies  more  particularly  to 
that  action  of  an  organ  which  is  redemp- 
tive in  the  sense  of  overcoming  an  ab- 
normal state  of  things  brought  about  by 
dependent  organs.  Every  organ  is,  how- 
ever, mediatorial  in  its  work,  and  particu- 
larly is  it  true  of  all  great  central  organs. 
They  are  mediators  of  life  in  the  grandest 
sense,  and  when  they  are  called  upon  to 
overcome  disease,  or  abnormality  in  any 
form,  they  are  redeemers.  The  truth  that 
they  are  redeemers  is  not  antagonistic  to 
evolution  ;  nor  does  it  show  that  evolution 
has  ceased  to  go  forward :  it  only  implies 
that  the  evolution  has  been  abnormal,  that 
it  has  not  been  in  the  direction  of  the  na- 
tive element  of  the  organism  or  its  noblest 
correspondences  ;  and  the  redemption  con- 
sists in  overcoming  this  abnormal  evolu- 
tion, and  in  bringing  every  organ,  and 
particularly  the  most  vital  organs,  into  co- 
ordination   with    their   vital  element,  and 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  3/5 

making  them  the  organs  of  the  kingdom 
to  which  they  supremely  belong. 

Another  condition  essential  to  the  spir- 
itual embryo  is  law.  As  we  study  the  hu- 
man child,  we  note  first  of  all  that  it  is  a 
germinating  organic  force.  As  has  been 
previously  said,  its  first  necessity  is  food, 
or,  in  other  words,  such  forms  of  matter 
as  it  can  readily  penetrate  and  organize. 
These  are  at  first  few.  A  babe  must 
have  milk,  and  even  a  full-grown  man 
must  have  some  form  of  matter  that  has 
been  previously  organized.  In  short,  the 
word  "food"  stands  for  the  narrowness  of 
the  field  of  man's  organic  power.  All 
forms  of  matter  that  are  covered  by  the 
word  "  food  "  he  can  take  up  and  organ- 
ize psychically,  assimilating  them  to  his 
own  organs,  and  so  fashioning  them  into 
a  little  world  —  a  microcosm  —  in  which 
his  soul  is  immanent,  and  on  every  part 
of  which  he  acts  psychically.  Outside  the 
microcosm  or  body  he  can  only  act  me- 
chanically, that  is,  through  the  mechanical 
leverage  of  his  bones  and  muscles ;  yet 
through  this  mechanical  action  he  brings 
about    the   most   wonderful    coordinations 


376  THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE. 

of  material  forces.  These  coordinations 
result  in  new  products,  some  of  them  me- 
chanical, such  as  the  electric  motor ;  others 
vital,  such  as  the  fruits,  flowers,  grains,  and 
domestic  animals.  Most  wonderful  of  all 
these  products,  however,  is  human  society, 
or  the  civilized  world,  which  includes  all 
the  others,  and  into  which  the  individual 
man  is  built  and  builds  himself  as  an  organ 
of  a  vast  body. 

In  all  this  process  man  is  under  law. 
He  is  compelled  to  work  with  God ;  he 
can  make  no  coordinations  that  are  not 
rendered  possible  by  the  Divine  Logos. 
In  Him,  as  St.  Paul  said,  all  things  stand 
together,  or  are  correlated.  In  these  reci- 
procities, caused  by  the  Divine  Logos,  exist 
all  the  potencies  that  are  open  to  man. 
By  these,  which  disclose  themselves  to 
man's  advancing  intelligence,  the  mind  of 
the  Logos  touches  and  arouses  his  mind, 
vitalizing  it  and  awakening  it  to  the  sig- 
nificance of  nature.  Thus  God  communes 
with  man,  —  educates  and  develops  him 
through  his  environment,  which  is  every- 
where penetrated  and  adapted  to  certain 
coordinations.     Certain  of  these  coordina- 


THE   CHRIST   UNIVERSE.  377 

tions  are  possible,  others  impossible.  For 
instance,  a  man  can  command  bread  by 
cultivating  wheat,  grinding  and  baking  it. 
He  cannot  make  bread  without  heat,  nor 
can  he  command  it  from  stones.  These 
fixed  adaptations,  which  limit  the  coordi- 
nating power  of  man,  we  call  the  laws 
of  nature.  It  is  evident,  however,  that 
they  are  relative  to  our  powers.  Within 
these  limits  there  is  a  vast  field  of  liberty. 
Nay,  within  them  man  can,  so  to  speak, 
make  his  own  world.  Nature  is  to  him  a 
God-given  property,  to  have  and  to  hold 
for  his  own  creative  purposes ;  for  it  is  by 
work,  particularly  by  creative  work,  that  he 
grows  to  be  a  spirit,  an  artist,  a  revelator, 
a  perfected  organ  of  the  Logos.  There- 
fore his  cosmic  environment  is  so  adapted 
to  him  by  God,  as  to  develop  first  organic 
force  by  means  of  food,  then  will  -  power 
through  the  struggle  for  food,  —  a  struggle 
sometimes  so  stern  and  terrible  that  many 
an  individual  perishes  ;  yet  through  it  there 
is  built  up  a  stronger  will-power  in  the 
surviving  race,  and  therefore  a  stronger 
will-power  in  the  individuals.  Then,  as 
will-power  is  developed,  as  man  becomes 


378  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

a  strong,  toiling  animal,  one  stronger  will 
becomes  the  stem  of  society;  the  strong 
will  develops  too  far,  and  society  is  built 
up  into  a  despotism.  Still,  through  that 
man-made  tyrannous  world,  God's  primal 
law  presses,  till  men  in  their  desperation 
for  bread  and  for  life  become  first  ingen- 
ious, then  intellectual,  then  instinct  with 
high  courage,  and  at  last  free,  each  man 
being  no  longer  a  helpless  unit,  but  a  liv- 
ing organ  of  the  government,  having  his 
vote,  his  property,  and  his  ability  to  stamp 
his  own  ideals  upon  a  little  world  of  his 
own,  a  home,  or  habitation  of  his  spirit. 

Thus,  if  men  make  false  coordinations, 
if  they  produce  a  malignant  or  abortive 
creation,  being  in  God's  universe,  it  works 
its  own  cure,  becoming  God's  plague, 
curse,  chastisement,  pressing  hard  on  man's 
great  primal  organic  necessities,  and  so 
forcing  him  at  last  to  fight  against  his  own 
evil  product,  and  to  put  it  down  in  God's 
name,  and  to  put  himself  under  the  lead 
of  God's  Spirit.  But  in  no  case  does 
God's  cosmos  shut  out  liberty :  on  the  con- 
trary, by  the  grim  pressure  of  necessity,  by 
the  beckonings  and  unfoldings  of  its  vast 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  379 

potencies,  by  its  insistence  on  action  and 
creative  action,  it  develops  liberty,  for  man 
is  an  embryo  spirit,  and  a  spirit  is  a  free, 
organic,  creative  power;  and  what  is  true 
of  man  is  true  of  all  spirits.  All  the  mate- 
rial facts  and  forces  are  correlated  with 
free  organic  powers.  The  material  forces 
do  not  stand  alone, —  everywhere  they  de- 
pend upon  the  supernatural.  This  is  a 
universe  of  lives,  of  spirits,  of  sons  of 
God.  God  is  immanent  in  it,  penetrating 
it ;  but,  with  the  exception  of  those  certain 
fixed  adaptations  called  laws,  he  does  not 
necessitate  it.  If  he  did,  it  would  be  no 
moral  universe,  for  freedom  is  the  very 
foundation  of  character,  and  the  spirit  is 
essentially  a  self-developing  power,  requir- 
ing liberty  and  property  as  well  as  Divine 
guidance.  Here,  then,  we  find  the  supreme 
condition  of  development  for  the  embryo : 
LIBERTY.  God's  kingdom,  therefore,  can- 
not be  compulsory.  He  does  not  over- 
awe us  by  assuming  some  vast  symbol  of 
himself  corresponding  to  the  human  body, 
thus  bringing  to  bear  upon  us  the  awe  of 
his  tremendous  aspect,  or  the  terrors  of  his 
mechanical  force.     He  seeks  to  control  us 


380  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

rather  by  his  spirit,  through  suggestion,  for 
the  dependent  spirit  is  his  child.  Him, 
therefore,  God  does  not  overshadow,  nor 
rule  by  force,  nor  chain  to  himself  by 
psychic  magnetism,  nor  prove  the  Divine 
existence  to  him  by  some  irrefutable  argu- 
ment, thus  vanquishing  his  intellect  and 
holding  him  a  spiritual  captive;  but  dwells 
within  him  in  his  subliminal  conscious- 
ness, upholding  all  his  vitalities,  constantly 
feeling  him,  feeling  for  him,  suffering  with 
him,  hungering  when  he  hungers,  pierced 
by  his  calamities,  —  above  all,  by  his  evil 
use  of  liberty,  —  awakening  in  him  the 
ethical  feeling  by  radiations  of  his  Holy 
Spirit  through  progressive  environments, 
often  pricking  him  in  the  heart  by  the 
pressure  of  a  divine  sensibility  on  his  con- 
science, but  ever  aiming  at  freedom,  ever 
leading  or  driving  him  forward  into  larger 
organic  force  and  fuller  liberty. 

Thus  in  the  human  spirit  there  is  al- 
ways the  power  to  refuse  progressive  coor- 
dination with  God ;  to  resist  the  Holy 
Ghost;  to  reject  the  Christ,  the  organ  of 
his  spiritual  kingdom ;  to  put  away  the 
divine  suggestions,  and  destroy  the  image 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  38 1 

of  God,  which  his  work  would  naturally 
produce  upon  the  mind ;  yes,  even  to  ruin 
the  soul,  for,  by  suffering  the  life  to  be- 
come absorbed  with  what  Christ  calls  this 
present  cosmos,  the  power  of  spiritual  fo- 
calization  is  destroyed.  Not  only  is  this 
true,  but  the  spirit  possesses  the  power 
to  make  sensuous  coordinations,  and  so 
create  worlds,  environments,  cosmic  pro- 
cesses, that  are  opposed  to  God,  that  shut 
out  God's  light,  that  quench  his  Spirit. 
Thus  it  is  possible  for  a  single  soul,  if  it 
be  great,  creative,  and  magnetic,  to  darken 
a  large  part  of  this  world  for  other  souls, 
sending  forth  the  miasmatic  gloom  of  its 
own  spirit  and  filling  nature  with  embod- 
iments of  lust  or  ambition  that  shut  up 
the  windows  of  heaven  and  eclipse  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness,  so  that  the  present 
cosmos  becomes,  as  it  were,  non-transmis- 
sive  and  devilish. 

Such,  for  the  most  part,  is  this  present 
world  to-day,  though  the  light  of  Christ  is 
illuminating  it  more  and  more.  Still  more 
was  it  in  his  day  an  evil  world,  a  world 
that  "  hated  both  him  and  his  Father." 
Nor  is  there  anything  irrational  in  his  tes- 


382  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

timony  that  much  of  the  cosmic  darkness 
and  evil  was  due  to  the  bhghting  power  of 
evil  spirits.  It  is  unphilosophic  to  say  that 
such  spirits  have  no  relation  to  us.  This 
is  a  universe  of  reciprocal  forces  ;  its  whole 
movement  is  toward  unity  and  reciprocity. 
The  goal  of  the  individual  spirit  is  not  in- 
dividualistic but  social.  Spiritual  power  is 
not  the  power  to  stand  alone,  an  isolated 
moral  force,  but  to  take  one's  place  as  an 
organ  in  a  vast  spiritual  body.  Spiritual 
manhood  means  the  comprehension  of  so- 
cial law,  the  practical  mastery  of  one's  own 
sphere  of  influence,  and  the  power  to  take 
and  to  hold  it  reciprocally  with  other 
spheres  of  influence. 

This  is  the  case  with  every  organic  force. 
It  must  learn  to  hold  its  own  in  the  field 
of  forces  to  which  it  belongs.  The  tree 
that  is  to  face  the  north  wind  must  grow 
in  the  north  wind.  Eternal  life,  like  any 
other  kind  of  life,  is  a  survival ;  its  func- 
tions are  developed  by  antagonism.  The 
idea  of  a  heaven  where  there  is  nothing 
to  resist  is  absurd.  Peace  is  the  result  of 
conquest  over  a  complex  cosmos,  whose 
powerful  forces  cease  to  harass  us  because 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  3^3 

we  understand  them,  and  have  acquired 
the  faculty  by  which  they  are  to  be  con- 
trolled. An  undisciplined  heart  would 
make  a  hell  of  heaven.  It  could  not  main- 
tain its  proper  sphere  of  influence,  or  keep 
in  unity  with  God.  The  secret  of  spiritual 
power  is  not  so  much  to  gain  faculties  for 
one's  self  as  to  become  a  sound  organ  of 
the  whole.  The  child  who  is  to  become  an 
instrument  of  deliverance  to  his  country 
must  needs  feel  his  oppressor's  tyranny 
even  from  the  cradle.  Man,  the  immortal, 
must  needs  contend  with  the,  immortal.  It 
stands  together  with  the  development  of  a 
supernatural  universe  that  there  should  be 
a  free  interplay  of  all  its  forces,  personal 
and  impersonal,  and  that  man,  a  miniature 
logos  and  angel  of  God,  should  wrestle, 
not  with  flesh  and  blood,  but  with  princi- 
palities and  powers,  with  the  rulers  of  the 
darkness  of  this  cosmos,  with  spiritual 
wickedness  in  high  places.  Ex  pede  Her- 
culem,  says  the  old  proverb.  A  single  organ 
reveals  the  structure  of  the  whole  giant. 
Either  we  ought  to  give  up  believing  the 
testimony  of  Jesus,  that  man  is  the  son  of 
God,  or  else  accept  the  kind  of  universe 


384  THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE. 

that  corresponds  to  such  an  embryo  and 
its  development.  A  midway  course  is  irra- 
tional. If  man  be  a  son  of  God,  and  Jesus 
the  Christ  the  Son  of  man,  the  final  issue 
of  this  perishing  cosmos  and  the  stem  of 
God's  spiritual  kingdom,  then  are  we  re- 
lated to  all  spiritual  existences,  and  our 
spiritual  life  must  be  shaped  by  a  struggle 
with  spiritual  influences  ;  then  it  is  true  also 
that  the  darkness  and  evil  of  this  cosmos 
are  due,  not  to  its  original  badness  or  gross- 
ness  or  opaqueness,  for  it  is  actually  trans- 
missive  and  ti'emulous  with  divine  light, 
but  to  the  fact  of  its  plasticity  under  the 
creative  power  of  free  spirits. 

The  evil  world,  therefore,  —  that  is,  the 
cosmos  in  its  evil  aspect, —  is  not  God's  cre- 
ation, but  the  creation  of  evil  spirits,  both 
human  and  superhuman ;  while,  in  dealing 
with  this  world,  God,  notwithstanding  his 
immanence  and  transcendence,  being  actu- 
ated by  love  and  caring  for  his  children,  — 
not  for  one  child  alone  but  for  the  whole 
universe  of  lives,  that  they  may  become  di- 
vine characters,  pure  and  holy  spirits,  chil- 
dren and  heirs  of  his  glory, —  God  is  there- 
fore, I  say,  shut  up  to  the  spiritual  process 


THE   CHRIST  UNIVERSE.  385 

of  suggestion,  touching  the  sensibility  of 
individual  souls,  and  moving  upon  them 
gently  by  the  radiation  of  his  own  spiritual 
life.  Thus  he  leads  them  forward  in  the 
pathway  of  a  spiritual  obedience ;  while 
they  themselves,  gaining  strength  by  re- 
sistance against  evil,  whether  coming  from 
their  own  passional  psychic  nature  or  from 
external  suggestion,  overcome  evil  with 
good,  and  create  new  environments  that 
reveal  God's  personality ;  not,  however, 
without  great  struggle  and  suffering  in 
which  God  himself  suffers,  even  as  when 
He  who  so  loved  the  world  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son.  Thus,  as  St.  Paul  puts  it, 
the  whole  creation  is  made  subject  to  van- 
ity, not  because  vanity  —  or,  what  is  the 
same  thing,  evil  —  represents  God's  will, 
but  because  of  God's  hope  that  through 
this  cosmic  process  of  liberty  the  universe 
of  lives  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bond- 
age of  passion,  not  into  the  iron  rule  of 
external  authority,  but  into  "  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  sons  of  God ; "  for  the  whole 
issue  of  the  cosmic  process,  and  its  earnest 
expectation,  is  "  the  manifestation  of  the 
sons  of  God." 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

THE    FOUNDATION    OF    BELIEF. 
I.    Darwinism  and  Christianity. 

It  may  be  objected  to  this  Christ  uni- 
verse that  it  does  not  conform  to  the  Dar- 
winian conception  of  evolution,  but  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  Christ  view 
is  taken  from  an  altogether  different  stand- 
point. It  is  a  more  inclusive  view, — a 
glimpse  of  things  in  their  final  relations. 
Then  it  certainly  does  not  antagonize  Dar- 
winism ;  and  as  to  the  latter,  can  any  one 
imagine  that  it  is  a  final  view  of  the  cos- 


mos  ? 


How  is  it  possible  that  man,  whose  rea- 
son is  in  process  of  development,  should 
by  it  construct  a  final  philosophy?  Be- 
sides, the  Darwinian  —  or,  as  it  is  in  its 
complete  form,  the  Spencerian  —  theory  is 
founded  upon  observations  into  which  the 
element  of  spiritual  perception  has  not 
entered  at   all.     It   is  reasonable   to  sup- 


THE   FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       387 

pose  that  the  perfect  spiritual  perception 
of  the  Christ  should  see  things  on  a  larger 
scale ;  but  the  general  harmony-  is,  to  say 
the  least,  remarkable.  Both  agree  in  the 
conception  of  an  organic  evolution  taking 
place  under  environment,  and  in  both  there 
appears  also  the  idea  of  a  survival  of  the 
fittest.  The  radical  difference  between  the 
two  views  is,  that  the  Spencerian  does  not 
go  to  the  bottom  of  things;  it  leaves  us 
confronted  by  a  vast  series  of  forces  which 
for  some  reason  act  uniformly,  but  the 
ground  for  uniformity  does  not  appear.  It 
is  therefore  in  reality  no  philosophy  of  the 
cosmos.  We  are  told  that  things  stand 
together,  but  we  are  not  told  what  the 
mediating  element  is  in  which  they  stand 
together ;  we  do  not  see  the  entire  process ; 
we  are  left  confronted  by  facts  that  cannot 
be  brought  into  unity;  nor  indeed  have 
we  any  proof  of  nature's  uniformity.  We 
accept  it,  as  Mr.  Huxley  has  admitted,  by 
an  act  of  faith.  Evolution  is  not  therefore 
a  completely  rational  view.  At  bottom  of 
it  we  are  obliged  to  accept  a  premise  with- 
out proof ;  we  have  no  certainty  as  to  the 
ultimate  relation  of  things ;  indeed,  many 


388        THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

evolutionists  hold  that  the  final  relation 
of  things  is  fortuitous.  This  amounts  to 
pretty  much  the  same  thing  as  saying  that 
there  is  no  final  relation.  This  is  not  a 
mere  theoretical  question,  it  is  one  of  infi- 
nite practicality ;  for  this  very  notion  that 
the  forces  of  the  universe  do  not  finally 
stand  together  in  any  intelligent  plan,  but 
are  drifting  toward  a  future  without  ulti- 
mate coherence,  has  to  many  minds  taken 
away  all  sanction  from  the  moral  powers. 
Moreover,  it  takes  away  the  validity  of  the 
reason  itself.  If  reason  and  conscience  are 
simply  powers  that  have  been  developed 
in  a  fortuitous  struggle  for  survival,  then, 
as  Mr.  Balfour  intimates,  neither  of  them 
can  be  considered  an  ultimate  authority. 

True,  their  authority  rests  upon  the  logic 
of  nature,  but  if  nature  herself  is  adrift,  this 
last  fact  reduces  all  our  thought  to  stulti- 
fication. But  at  this  point  Christ  comes 
to  the  rescue  of  the  evolutionary  view. 
His  spiritual  perception  supplies  the  miss- 
ing element ;  it  makes  nature  rational  and 
spiritual.  If  all  things  do  indeed  stand  to- 
gether in  one  personal  life  which  is  both 
spirit  and  psyche,  then  the  logic  of  nature 


THE   FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       389 

becomes  the  logic  of  God ;  and,  however 
imperfect  reason  or  conscience  may  be  in 
their  present  stage,  or  when  detached  from 
God's  guidance,  they  have  infinite  worth 
and  sanction  as  the  organs  of  his  natural 
revelation.  Standing  in  relation  to  him, 
they  become  sources  of  divine  illumination. 
Nature  thus  becomes  God's  voice,  saying, 
in  the  words  of  the  old  Hebrew  prophet, 
"  I  will  guide  thee  with  mine  eye." 


II.  AtitJiority  and  Reason. 

The  foregoing  chapters  seem  to  me  a 
fair  rendering  of  Christ's  view  into  the 
thought  of  our  own  times.  If  this  is  cor- 
rect, then  two  points  of  frequent  debate 
are  settled :  First,  as  to  the  foundation  of 
belief.  Only  one  conception  is  possible  if 
we  accept  this  idea  of  the  supernatural, — 
belief  must  be  founded  on  perception.  If 
the  supernatural  is,  as  Christ  taught,  the 
natural  environment  of  the  human  soul ; 
if  man  has  in  him  a  potentiality  for  feeling 
God ;  if  man  be  the  embryo  supernatural 
and  God  the  parental,  —  then  faith  in  God 
must  correspond  to  the  faith  of  a  child  in 
his  parent,  and  that  is  certainly  founded 


390       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

on  perception.  As  the  perception  broad- 
ens, the  child's  faith  becomes  rational ;  as 
it  extends  upward,  the  faith  becomes  moral 
and  spiritual.  It  is  true  that  the  parental 
teachings  are  beyond  the  perception  of 
the  child,  but  the  child  accepts  them  be- 
cause he  perceives  the  parental  character. 
Conscience  shows  him  the  quality  of  the 
parental  life  ;  reason  shows  him  the  rela- 
tion between  the  parental  acts.  Thus  he 
perceives  his  father's  life  as  a  whole,  and 
he  perceives  that  it  is  not  unitable  with 
unkindness  or  deceit. 

So,  while  he  accepts  the  parental  teach- 
ings on  trust,  his  trust  is  entirely  rational. 
It  is  founded  on  a  perfectly  coherent 
perception ;  nor  does  the  world  afford 
us  any  more  solid  basis  for  knowledge 
than  this.  If  revelation  be  what  Jesus 
called  it,  light ;  if  the  disciple  be,  as  Jesus 
declared,  a  man  who  walks  in  the  light ;  if 
the  truth  of  God  be,  as  such  language  im- 
plies, the  transmission  of  God's  thought  and 
feelinQT,  the  actual  coordination  of  God's 
life  with  ours,  —  then  assuredly  it  is  a 
misnomer  to  call  anything  a  revelation  of 
God  unless  it  does  actually  awaken  percep- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       391 

tion.  Revelation,  on  the  divine  side,  is 
transmission ;  on  the  human  side,  sight. 
We  are  told  by  certain  wiseacres  that 
there  are  just  two  foundations  for  faith  : 
one  is  reason,  the  other  authority ;  and  if  a 
man  puts  his  faith  in  authority,  he  must 
be  consistent  and  give  up  reason.  Such 
talk  leads  to  confusion.  A  medical  ex- 
pert is  an  authority.  When  an  invalid 
puts  his  case  in  the  hands  of  a  medical 
expert,  does  he  throw  away  reason  ?  Not 
unless  he  is  an  uncommonly  stupid  man. 
If  he  has  any  rational  perception,  he  uses 
it  to  find  out  just  how  valuable  an  author- 
ity that  physician  is.  He  does  not  reason 
about  the  treatment.  That  he  takes  on 
faith ;  it  is  beyond  his  reasoning  faculties, 
because  it  is  beyond  his  experience.  Au- 
thority settles  the  medical  questions,  but 
the  authority  itself  he  does  not  accept  save 
on  the  basis  of  a  thoroughly  rational  per- 
ception. The  same  is  true  in  regard  to  a 
witness  in  a  judicial  trial.  The  testimony 
of  a  witness  is  accepted  with  regard  to 
what  he  has  seen,  for  the  facts  of  his 
testimony  are  beyond  the  observation  of 
the  court,  but  it  is  not  accepted  unless  he 


392'     THE   FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

is  a  credible  witness,  and  a  credible  witness 
is  one  in  whom  we  perceive  honesty  and 
intelligence.  Thus,  while  we  accept  his 
authority  on  faith,  we  found  that  faith 
itself  on  our  own  rational  perception  of  his 
qualities,  and  in  this  process  the  whole 
perceptive  organism  is  essential.  Reason 
and  feeling  are  coordinated. 

Nothino:  could  be  more  absurd  therefore 
than  the  general  statement,  that,  in  accept- 
ing authority,  we  must  renounce  reason.  I 
am  aware  that  this  claim  is  made  by  certain 
so-called  ecclesiastical  authorities,  and  that 
drives  us  to  the  question.  What  is  an  au- 
thority? A  genuine  authority  is  a  per- 
sonality w^ho  transcends  our  own  faculties 
in  some  direction,  so  that  we  are  com- 
pelled to  supplement  our  knowledge  by 
his.  The  ultimate  basis  of  authority  is 
the  fact  already  referred  to,  that  nature's 
method  is  organic :  she  creates  no  separate 
units ;  all  things  are  interdependent.  Evo- 
lution brings  about  constant  specialization  ; 
each  individual  is  stocked  with  his  peculiar 
set  of  capacities  and  adaptations  for  the 
common  good.  This  specialization  leads 
to  arrangement  in  groups  and  about  or- 
ganic centres. 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      393 

It  is  with  men  as  with  plants  or  with 
the  human  body  :  some  are  stems,  others 
branches ;  some  are  heads,  others  mem- 
bers. There  are  also  parents  and  children, 
leaders  and  followers.  Each  man  is  an 
organ ;  each  organ  has  its  function ;  each 
function  has  its  authority  based  on  social 
necessity.  The  organ  exists,  not  for  itself, 
but  in  order  to  promote  the  highest  devel- 
opment of  the  whole.  When  one  organ 
interferes  with  the  development  of  another, 
that  is  tyranny.  Every  organ  has  the 
authority  to  resist  tyranny.  Liberty  is  the 
right  to  perform  one's  organic  function. 
Every  organ  is  bound  to  justify  itself  by 
promoting  the  development  of  its  depend- 
ent organs.  Authority  is,  therefore,  the 
right  of  an  organ  to  perform  its  function 
in  supplementing  the  lives  that  are  depend- 
ent on  it.  There  is  an  element  of  coer- 
cion in  all  authority,  for  the  structure  of 
things  makes  its  function  a  necessity.  An 
authority  may  not  be  able  to  assert  its 
own  right,  but  nature  will  assert  it.  The 
Athenians  may  banish  Aristides,  but  they 
will  have  to  take  their  punishment.  The 
Jews  may  reject  their  Messiah  ;  but  if  he 


394      THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

be  truly  the  natural  head  of  the  organ- 
ism, then  the  natural  law  of  the  structure 
will  bring  in  a  judgment  day.  We  all  have 
to  settle  our  accounts  with  authority ;  still 
a  person  who  is  a  natural  leader  may  base 
his  authority  on  various  footings,  accord- 
ing to  his  choice.  Caesar  based  his  upon 
force;  that  was  autocracy.  It  was  necessary 
at  the  time,  because  the  other  organs  of 
the  Roman  state  were  unfit  to  perform  their 
function.  The  same  was  true  under  the 
Mosaic  theocracy :  autocratic  or  aristocratic 
authority  was  a  necessity,  because  the  sub- 
jects of  the  authority  had  not  yet  reached 
the  possibilities  of  self-government.  Self- 
government  begins  with  the  power  to  per- 
ceive a  true  authority,  and  to  choose  a  true 
leader  in  rational  faith.  As  soon  as  that 
becomes  possible,  authority  must  base  it- 
self upon  perception ;  nay,  it  must  antici- 
pate that  crisis  by  attempting  to  form  per- 
ception. When  an  authority  bases  itself 
upon  rational  perception,  then  it  is  rational 
authority.  When  it  bases  its  claim  to  faith 
not  only  upon  rational  perception,  but  on 
the  development  and  purification  of  the 
sensibility,  then  it  is  spiritual  authority. 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       395 

The  characteristic  of  rational  authority 
is,  that  although  it  is  conscious  of  natural 
headship,  it  does  not  put  its  claim  before 
men  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  but  en- 
deavors to  gain  its  position  by  developing 
rational  perception. 

The  characteristic  of  spiritual  author- 
ity is,  that,  while  it  rejects  force  and  ap- 
peals to  reason,  it  also  depends  on  purify- 
ing and  spiritualizing  the  life.  Now,  there 
is  no  question  as  to  the  position  which 
Jesus  took  in  regard  to  his  authority.  It 
is  clear  that  he  believed  himself  to  be  the 
supreme  authority,  the  Messiah,  the  Son 
of  God,  for  he  declared  so  on  oath.  His 
relation  to  revelation  in  general  has  been 
already  defined.  He  was  the  fulfiUer,  the 
crowning  organ  for  interpretation,  trans- 
mission, and  formation  of  spiritual  life.  It 
was  his  function  not  only  to  radiate  God, 
but  so  to  form  and  purify  and  develop  the 
life  of  man  that  it  should  be  perceptive. 
"  I  am  come,"  said  he,  "  that  the  blind  may 
receive  siofht."  His  entire  attitude  was  con- 
sistent  with  this  position.  He  spoke  with 
supreme  authority  to  those  who  followed 
him,  but  he  rejected  physical  force.     He 


396       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

pointed  out  by  parables  the  organic  neces- 
sity of  his  authority.  He  showed  its  rai- 
son  d'etre  in  the  nature  of  things;  nay, 
he  pointed  back  of  the  nature  of  things  to 
the  will  of  God.  He  showed  how  "  the 
powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God."  He 
pointed  out  the  coercive  element  in  his  own 
authority,  —  the  certainty  that  those  that 
rejected  him  must  recko'n  with  nature  and 
with  God.  He  declared  that  it  would  be 
"  more  tolerable  for  Sodom  and  Gomorrah 
in  the  day  of  judgment  "  than  for  those  that 
neglected  his  gospel.  But  all  this  was  back- 
ground ;  the  foreground  of  his  claim  upon 
men's  faith,  the  gospel  itself,  was  his  radia- 
tion of  the  divine  character.  This  was  the 
formative  light:  "the  lame  walked,  the 
lepers  were  cleansed,  to  the  poor  the  gospel 
was  preached,"  —  these  were  his  creden- 
tials. See  Luke  vii.  22.  Note  also  that 
the  psychic  element  plays  an  important 
part  in  this  evidential  work  of  Jesus.  The 
cures  would  have  been  impossible  save  for 
it.  It  is  an  eternal  element  of  the  divine 
light.  But  the  passage  universally  accepted 
as  a  statement  both  of  Christ's  authority 
and  the  foundation  of  faith  is  Matt.  xvi.  18. 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      397 

Strangely  enough,  this  very  passage  has 
been  twisted  wholly  away  from  its  historic 
significance  and  construed  into  a  bestowal 
of  arbitrary  and  dogmatic  authority  upon 
a  bishop.  The  fact  of  the  case  was,  that 
Jesus  had  actually  refrained  from  stating, 
even  to  the  twelve,  that  he  was  the 
Christ,  or  the  Son  of  God.  Until  they 
had  been  following  him  a  very  consider- 
able length  of  time,  the  statement  would 
have  been  to  them  purely  dogmatic,  and, 
therefore,  valueless;  so  he  waited  for  their 
perception  to  develop.  Then,  in  the  quiet 
at  Cesarea  Philippi,  having  drawn  out 
from  them  the  varying  drift  of  public 
opinion  concerning  himself,  he  suddenly 
threw  the  whole  vexed  question  of  his 
authoi'ity  upon  their  reason :  "  But  whom 
say  ye  that  I  am  t "  When  Peter  an- 
swered, "  Thou  art  the  Christ,  the  Son 
of  the  living  God,"  he  replied,  "  Happy 
art  thou,  Simon;  for  flesh  and  blood 
hath  not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  my 
Father  who  is  in  heaven."  In  other 
words,  the  human  organ  of  revelation,  the 
flesh  and  blood  of  Jesus,  had  accomplished 
its  divine  function  for  Simon.     It  had  not 


39S      THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

spoken  of  itself.  It  had  been  a  faithful 
transmitting  agent ;  the  Father  had  spoken 
through  it.  And  the  corresponding  fact 
was  also  true.  The  rational  and  spiritual 
perception  of  Simon  had  begun  to  form. 
It  had  penetrated  beyond  the  human  agency 
to  the  invisible  facts  and  relationships  that 
lay  behind  it;  the  soul  of  Simon  was  rest- 
ing upon  ultimate  verities.  "  And  I  tell 
thee,"  said  Jesus,  "  thou  art  a  rock,  and 
upon  this  ledge  I  will  build  my  church,  and 
the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against 
it." 

Then  it  was  that  to  Simon  and  to  the 
twelve  Jesus  committed,  not  an  authority 
differing  from  his  own,  but  a  dependent 
extension  of  the  same  organic  function, 
declaring  that  to  them,  as  exercising  that 
function,  he  would  give  the  keys  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven,  the  very  keys  of  revela- 
tion and  perception  by  which  he  had  al- 
ready unlocked  the  kingdom  for  them. 
Unfortunately  the  ecclesiastics  have,  to  a 
large  extent,  misunderstood  the  nature  of 
this  authority,  and  have  gone  about  en- 
deavoring to  make  proselytes  to  a  dogma, 
giving  promise  of  heaven  to  all  who  re- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      399 

ceived  it  and  of  hell  to  those  who  refused. 
Nothing  could  be  more  foreign  to  the  idea 
or  spirit  of  Christ.  Nor  could  there  be 
any  greater  wickedness  than  has  been 
manifested  in  the  name  of  Christ's  au- 
thority by  men  who  believed  the  teach- 
ings of  Christ  as  mere  dogmas,  without 
a  particle  of  insight  into  their  spiritual 
meaning.  Such  men  are  not  coordinated 
with  God.  They  have  not  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  nor  do  they  belong  to  his 
church,  if  his  idea  of  the  church  is  to 
be  accepted.  The  church,  according  to 
Christ,  is  an  extension  of  the  revelatory 
organism  ;  the  true  disciple  is  an  organ 
of  revelation,  acting  under  Christ.  His 
authority  over  men  is  simply  an  extension, 
according  to  his  measure,  of  Christ's  author- 
ity. He  should,  like  Christ,  bear  witness 
to  the  revelation  that  he  has  perceived,  but 
he  has  no  right  to  bind  dogma  upon  men 
in  advance  of  their  spiritual  perception. 

The  first  business  of  the  church  is  to 
follow  her  Master,  in  forming  a  matrix  of 
spiritual  life,  where  perception  may  be 
formed  and  developed  under  liberty.  A 
church  is  a  home  for  God's  children.     Its 


400       THE   FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

method  of  spiritualization  must  be  that  of 
the  home.  Its  authorities  must  be  of  the 
most  revelatory  and  parental  type.  If  they 
cannot  form  spiritual  perception,  they  are 
worthless.  There  cannot  be  a  doubt  on 
this  point,  for  it  is  corroborated  by  Christ's 
own  expression,  "Except  ye  become  as 
little  children  ye  shall  in  no  case  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven."  It  is  true  the  little 
child  can  be  made  to  submit  to  the  harsh- 
est kind  of  parental  dogmatism,  but  the 
child  that  does  so  submit  is  a  case  of  cruel 
malformation  in  which  the  natural  ten- 
dency of  childhood  has  been  brutally  extin- 
guished, and  it  is  an  insult  to  call  such 
stupid  cruelty  parental  authority.  The 
mind  of  a  little  child  has  naturally  an 
inquiring  tendency,  and  the  peculiar  char- 
acteristic of  every  embryo  life  is  a  ten- 
der sensitiveness  to  the  radiation  of  the 
parental  life.  The  child  nestles  to  the 
parental  bosom;  it  feels  after  the  father- 
hood and  motherhood.  The  child  soul  is 
full  of  sensibility  and  of  a  desire  to  under- 
stand;  the  eye  is  clear,  but  unformed;  the 
soul  has  not  yet  been  centred  on  a  selfish 
passion,  nor  the  reason  taught  to  play 
tricks  for  its  satisfaction. 


THE   FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      401 

Now  the  normal  coordination  of  parent 
with  child  depends  on  the  proper  develop- 
ment of  that  perceptive  organism :  this  is 
the  parent's  hope ;  it  is  for  this  his  author- 
ity exists;  this  is  the  potency  of  faith;  and 
when  the  faith  of  childhood  is  thus  based 
on  the  normal  development  of  the  child's 
perception,  without  undue  restraint  of 
either  feeling  or  inquiry,  then  that  faith 
rests  upon  a  rock, —  it  strikes  deep  into 
unchanging  realities ;  it  rests  on  eternal 
values.  Nothing  less  than  such  a  faith 
can  satisfy  God,  but  the  method  for  devel- 
oping it  involves  much  sacrifice.  This 
Christ  clearly  understood. 

It  often  happens  that,  as  the  child  grows, 
the  development  of  physical  energy  and 
the  stimuli  of  external  pleasure  waken  in 
him  a  far  greater  consciousness  of  his 
own  vitalities  than  of  the  parental  love. 
The  boy's  eye  begins  to  be  evil,  for  it  is 
turned  upon  himself.  There  is  too  much 
ego  in  his  cosmos;  his  reason,  too,  plays 
him  a  trick.  Perfectly  clear  within  its  nar- 
row range,  it  seems  to  him  adequate  to  any 
task ;  whatever  cannot  satisfy  it  he  scorn- 
fully rejects.     He   is,  at  that  age,  off  the 


402       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

track  of  normal  development,  and  in  danger 
of  becoming  morally  detached  from  the 
home  which  is  the  matrix  of  ethical  life  for 
him.  He  is  neither  child  nor  man,  but  a 
kind  of  priggish  animal.  If  he  continues 
to  develop  on  that  line  he  will  soon  become 
a  disorganized  boy  and  a  possible  criminal. 
When  a  lad  gets  into  that  state,  neither 
arguments  nor  explanations  can  do  him 
much  good.  He  can  overmatch  you  with 
arguments  which  you  find  it  impossible  to 
answer,  simply  because  you  cannot  show 
him  the  larger  aspect  of  things.  Proof  lies 
in  broader  reasoning,  but  broader  reasoning 
requires  broader  perception,  and  broader 
perception  requires  a  larger  and  more  com- 
plex sensibility.  For  the  attainment  of 
this  larger  sensibility  there  is  but  one 
method,  that  of  revelation.  But  to  this  he 
has  become  insensitive ;  therefore  he  must, 
as  we  say,  have  his  heart  touched.  The 
parental  spirit  must  in  some  way  manage 
to  make  itself  felt.  This  is  the  problem 
of  parental  government;  often  it  is  only 
through  a  tragedy  that  the  parental  spirit 
succeeds  in  making  itself  felt,  and  so  re- 
stores the  intellectual  little  brute   to   the 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      403 

path  of  normal  evolution.  Then,  for  the 
first  time,  the  potential  spiritual  sensibility 
of  the  youth  is  awakened.  He  experiences 
genuine  reverence,  namely,  the  conscious- 
ness of  what  is  really  great  in  the  parental 
authority,  for  it  is  the  spiritual  love  that  is 
the  true  majesty.  Then,  too,  comes  that 
new  sense  of  obligation  —  the  consciousness 
of  the  boy  that  he  belongs  to  the  larger  life, 
not  merely  because  of  external  authority, 
but  because  of  the  unity  between  that  life 
and  his  own.  He  belongs  to  his  father, 
because  no  one  loves  him  like  his  father. 
Even  his  own  self-love  is  a  poor  and  feeble 
thing  compared  with  the  father's  spiritual 
affection  for  him.  With  this  new  con- 
sciousness of  the  fatherhood,  there  comes 
a  new  and  tender  sense  of  sin  as  an  injury 
done  against  love,  while,  at  the  same  time, 
with  the  sense  of  sin  comes  the  assurance 
of  a  flood-tide  of  forgiveness.  Thus  there 
is  born  in  him  a  new  spiritual  conscience. 
These  are,  I  believe,  always  the  elements 
of  character  developed  in  the  lad  when  he 
is  profoundly  touched  by  parental  sacrifice, 
and  with  these  begin  the  purification  and 
development  of  perception.     Now,  to  the 


404       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

mind  of  Christ,  the  position  of  man  with 
reference  to  God  was  like  that  of  the  child 
who  has  passed  through  the  infantile  stage 
of  childhood  and  has  reached  that  of  youth. 
He  is  a  child  still,  but  it  is  the  crisis  of  child- 
hood. Kindergarten  pedagogy,  rewards  and 
penalties,  the  authority  of  force  and  dogma, 
all  the  old  theocratic  methods,  had  done 
their  work  and  must  be  laid  aside ;  a  new 
authority  must  take  their  place,  —  a  larger, 
tenderer,  more  personal  revelation.  The 
heart  must  be  touched  by  the  divine  trag- 
edy. No  explanation,  nor  philosophy,  nor 
proof,  could  meet  the  case.  The  Christ 
was  the  person  who  represented  God's 
spiritual  authority,  but  that  authority  was 
organic,  not  arbitrary.  It  must,  therefore, 
now  manifest  itself  by  disclosing  its  vital 
force  in  the  heart  of  God;  man  must  see 
that  he  belonged  to  God,  because  God 
loved  him  even  unto  death.  There  was 
something  awful  in  the  fixed  determina- 
tion of  Jesus  that  the  cross  should  be 
his  only  answer  to  those  who  challenged 
him.  This  thought  of  Jesus  was  clearly 
grasped  by  St.  Paul,  who  declared  that 
his    preaching    did    not    consist    in    phi- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      405 

losophy  or  rhetoric,  lest  he  should  make 
the  cross  of  Christ  of  none  effect.  In 
other  words,  he  did  not  dare  to  come,  with 
his  human  explanations  or  fine  speeches, 
between  the  dying  Redeemer  and  the  hearts 
of  men.  There  are  some  facts  that  can 
best  speak  for  themselves.  The  simplest 
telling  of  the  story  is  the  best.  What  is 
desired  in  the  witness  is,  that  he  should 
himself  be  profoundly  in  touch  with  the  fact. 
That  makes  him  transmissive.  Skeptics 
have  complained  that  preachers  were  emo- 
tional, and  that  emotion  was  opposed  to 
clear  perception.  That  depends  on  the 
kind  of  perception  required. 

When  there  is  already  sufficient  reason- 
ing power,  and  the  main  thing  demanded 
is  a  larger  and  purer  sensibility,  then  it  is 
impossible  to  get  along  without  emotion, 
but  it  must  be  of  the  highest  and  purest 
kind.  The  human  flesh  and  blood  must 
become,  as  in  Christ's  case,  a  self-abnega- 
ting medium  for  the  Divine  love. 

III.    The  Authority  of  the  New  Testament. 

Christ's  view  is  evidently  the  one  taken 
by  the  evangelists.     His  basis  of  authority 


406       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

is  that  on  which  the  New  Testament 
claims  our  belief.  What  is  true  of  Christ's 
authority  must  be  true  concerning  the  au- 
thority of  the  New  Testament.  By  its 
own  assertion  it  is  a  history  of  facts  that 
are  coordinate  with  us ;  it  is  a  revelation 
or  nothing,  and  it  is  a  revelation  of  our 
own  spiritual  environment.  True,  it  is 
about  a  historic  Jesus,  but  it  tells  us  that 
Jesus  is  the  Son  of  God,  that  he  is  the 
conditioned  divine  personality,  that  he  has 
ascended  into  God's  omnipresence.  He 
must  therefore  be  near,  as  God  is  near, 
"  closer  than  breathing,  nearer  than  hands 
and  feet."  "  I  am  with  you  always,"  he 
said  ;  "  where  two  or  three  are  gathered 
together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the 
midst  of  them."  (Matthew  xviii.  20.)  The 
New  Testament  does  not  state  facts  dog- 
matically ;  it  is  a  book  surcharged  with  life, 
tremulous  with  divine  love.  It  is  a  por- 
trait rather  than  an  historic  account,  —  a 
portrait  through  which  the  living  Christ 
breathes  and  looks  upon  the  soul  of  man. 
The  thoughts  and  feelings  of  Christ  radi- 
ate from  every  page  ;  they  invite  the  soul  to 
follow.    Following,  one  finds  both  the  heart 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       407 

and  mind  of  Christ ;  the  supernatural  envi- 
ronment is  disclosed  to  him.  The  author- 
ity of  the  New  Testament  is  therefore  that 
of  an  organ.  It  justifies  itself  to  an  ever- 
widening  perception.  I  do  not  mean  for 
a  moment  that  there  is  a  lack  of  external 
evidence ;  but  it  would  take  a  separate 
book  to  speak  of  that.  My  subject  is  the 
relation  of  Chrisfs  idea  to  evidence.  If 
Christ's  idea  be  correct,  and  the  New  Tes- 
tament be  a  divine  revelation,  then  the 
principal  evidence  must  be  internal.  It 
consists  in  a  spiritual  perception  grasping 
the  eternal  realities  themselves.  What 
other  criterion  could  there  be  for  a  revela- 
tion }  Could  a  chain  of  external  evidence 
take  the  place  of  this.?  Could  historic 
testimony  constitute  the  ultimate  guar- 
antee of  a  revelatory  organ }  Could  any- 
thing do  this  but  the  development  in  us 
of  God-consciousness  ?  Doubtless,  on  the 
basis  of  Christ's  view,  the  best  external 
evidence  for  the  New  Testament  is  the 
historic  part  which  it  has  played  in  the 
spiritual  development  of  the  race.  The 
great  fact  of  human  history  is  the  struggle 
for  spiritual   survival,  flesh   against  spirit. 


408       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

You  see  it  everywhere,  in  the  old  Accadian 
hymns,  in  the  Vedas,  in  the  Egyptian 
Book  of  the  Dead.  Now,  in  this  struggle 
the  New  Testament  has,  despite  the  blood- 
iest opposition,  come  to  the  front ;  it  has 
taken  the  lead.  For  it  has  fortified  the 
spiritual  life,  satisfied  its  hungerings,  re- 
lieved its  guilt,  harmonized  it  with  its 
ideals,  adjusted  it  to  its  supernatural  envi- 
ronment, supplied  it  with  the  greatest  of 
all  moral  and  spiritual  forces  in  the  love  of 
God,  developed  its  valuation  of  the  human 
soul.  It  has  called  the  individual  to  the 
most  sublime  sacrifices,  yet  has  harmo- 
nized the  sacrifice  of  the  individual  life  with 
its  eternal  welfare.  It  has  reconciled  self- 
abnegation  and  self-interest,  and  so  taught 
men  the  only  reasonable  altruism.  It  has 
developed  the  perception  of  those  who 
have  identified  themselves  with  it,  till  they 
have  had  not  only  the  idea  of  God,  but 
a  perfectly  rational  consciousness  of  his 
presence.  To  call  the  belief  of  these  men 
irrational  is  absurd.  It  is  backed  up  by 
the  Iconic  of  life.  The  necessities  of  the 
spiritual  struggle  are  part  of  our  evolu- 
tion ;  the  authority  of  the  New  Testament 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       409 

is  therefore  based  upon  the  law  of  evolu- 
tion itself.  The  disciples  of  Jesus  may 
well  say,  with  Peter  when  asked  if  he 
would  forsake  Christ,  "  Lord,  to  whom 
shall  we  go?  Thou  hast  the  words  of 
eternal  life." 

Eternal  life  is  spiritual  life,  the  final 
stage  of  man's  evolution.  It  stands  in  a 
logical  unity  with  the  previous  stages. 
The  man  who  has  attained  to  it  discerns 
his  own  life  as  a  rational  continuity.  He 
also  discerns  it  as  standing  together  with 
the  facts  of  the  universe.  As  the  Duke 
of  Argyle  has  asserted,  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  Christian  is  the  real  unit  and  core  of 
all  social  evolution,  for  social  evolution  de- 
mands a  vital  altruism.  It  is  impossible 
for  altruism  to  continue  as  a  persistent 
force  in  social  evolution  unless  it  is  thor- 
oughly vital,  and  a  spirit  from  which  rea- 
son, hope,  and  individual  satisfaction  have 
departed  is  not  vital.  Altruism  is  essen- 
tially spiritual  in  its  nature ;  it  needs  to  be 
fed  upon  eternal  realities,  like  the  father- 
hood of  God,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  and 
a  joyful  immortality.  It  draws  its  vitality 
from    the    words   of    eternal  life,   for   the 


410       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

words  are  transmissive.  They  are  not 
dogmas,  but  vehicles  of  immortality.  The 
struggle  for  spiritual  survival  is  therefore 
the  spinal  cord  of  social  evolution.  The 
victory  of  Christian  faith  is  the  hope  of 
the  world.  This  fact  the  intelligent  Chris- 
tian sees.  His  faith  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment is  therefore  based  on  an  exceedingly 
broad  and  coherent  perception,  embracing 
both  internal  and  external  evidence.  For 
this  relation  of  the  New  Testament  to 
spiritual  and  social  evolution  is  a  colossal 
external  evidence,  compared  with  which 
the  external  evidences  commonly  adduced 
are  insignificant.  Therefore  there  can  be 
no  greater  misrepresentation  than  the  oft- 
repeated  statement  that  the  Christian  faith 
is  supra-rational.  Such  a  notion  is  radi- 
cally false  and  confusing.  It  is  true  that 
the  Christian  refuses  to  base  his  belief  on 
reason  and  external  sensation  alone ;  he 
has  rational  ground  for  such  a  refusal. 
Reason  and  external  sensation  do  not  con- 
stitute the  whole  of  the  perceptive  organ- 
ism, and  the  Christian  is  perfectly  logical 
in  demanding  that  perception  shall  take  in 
all  the  elements  of  vision ;  that  it  shall  in- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      411 

elude  the  highest  feehngs ;  that  it  shall  be 
pure  and  rational  and  spiritual.  He  is 
also  logical  in  insisting  with  Christ  that  a 
man  shall  become  as  a  little  child.^  If  the 
perceptive  organism  includes  the  whole  life, 
then  surely  nothing  but  the  turning  of  the 
whole  life,  with  all  its  sensitive  elements, 
toward  the  organ  of  revelation,  can  pos- 
sibly fit  a  man  to  judge  of  that  revelation : 
he  must  be  touched  by  the  larger  life  be- 
fore he  can  be  fitted  to  reason  about  it.  It 
is  not  the  use  of  reason  that  the  Christian 
objects  to  :  it  is  the  divorce  of  reason  from 
the  rest  of  the  perceptive  organism,  and 
the  exaltation  of  it  with  external  sensation, 
as  though  the  two  together  constituted  a 
complete  criterion.  Above  all  does  he 
object  to  the  absurd  claim  that  belief 
can  be  founded  on  logic.  The  Christian 
knows  that  logic  is  a  machine  exceed- 
ingly liable  to  tricks  and  accident.  One 
of  its  premises,  at  least,  must  rest  upon 
what  is  called  a  known  fact ;  but  the 
known  fact  always  contains  an  unknown 
element,  which  if  expanded  might  make  a 

^  "  Except  ye  be  converted,"  means  simply,  "  Except  ye 
turn." 


412       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

new  universe  and  break  up  the  whole  syl- 
logism. Therefore  he  does  not  think  that 
our  faith  in  any  objective  reality  can  rest 
upon  logic.  Indeed,  the  thoughtful  Chris- 
tian is  inclined  to  ask  whether  this  is  not 
the  real  difHculty  with  the  naturalistic 
position  as  exposed  by  Mr.  Balfour.  No- 
thing could  be  more  suggestive  of  this 
than  Mr.  Spenser's  reply:  he  complains 
that  Mr.  Balfour  has  not  fairly  represented 
naturalism.  Probably  he  is  correct.  The 
average  reader  of  Mr.  Balfour's  book  will 
most  likely  feel  that  the  argument  proves 
too  much,  but  this  is  exactly  what  the  com- 
mon mind  also  feels  about  naturalism  it- 
self. Any  logic  that  ends,  as  Mr.  Spenser 
confesses  his  does,  in  a  dark  outlook,  cer- 
tainly does,  to  the  healthy  human  intellect, 
prove  too  much.  Besides,  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  the  shaky  position  in  which 
Mr.  Balfour  leaves  naturalism  is  the  result 
of  pushing  to  its  legitimate  consequences 
the  chosen  position  of  Mr.  Huxley  and 
Mr.  Spenser.  They  have  been  always  as- 
serting that  their  position  rested  upon 
strict  logic. 

Mr.   Huxley's  latest  book  was  an  insist- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       413 

ence  that  Christianity  should  justify  itself 
by  strict  logic,  precisely  as  the  naturalistic 
philosophers  justify  their  view.  Now,  the 
curious  fact  is,  that,  while  the  naturalistic 
philosophy  does,  on  the  whole,  commend 
itself  to  the  coherent  perception  of  man- 
kind, yet  the  moment  it  is  subjected  to  a 
strict  and  universal  test  of  logic  it  begins 
to  look  dubious.  Furthermore,  as  has  been 
said,  Mr.  Huxley  himself  confesses  that 
the  scientist  is  obliged  to  accept  his  funda- 
mental postulate,  the  uniformity  of  nature, 
by  an  act  of  faith  (which  is  certainly  true, 
unless  his  perception  can  penetrate  to  an 
ultimate  cause  of  uniformity) ;  while  his 
logic  regarding  the  primary  qualities  of 
matter  compels  him  to  depend  absolutely 
on  faith  for  his  certitude  in  regard  to  the 
external  world.  It  would  appear,  therefore, 
that  Mr.  Balfour  has  fairly  made  his  prin- 
cipal point,  which  is,  that  those  who  can- 
not stand  the  strict  application  of  logic  to 
their  own  poition  cannot  with  a  very  good 
grace  insist  on  such  a  process  for  others. 
It  is  true,  there  is  sound  sense  in  Mr. 
Spenser's  objection  that  Mr.  Balfour's  book 
undermines  reason,  and   that    to  do  that 


414       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

is  to  commit  mental  suicide.  But  this  is 
rather  a  droll  objection  for  Mr.  Spenser  to 
urge,  since  it  is  the  pushing  of  his  own 
logical  position  that  actually  does  the  un- 
dermining. Does  the  difficulty,  then,  really 
lie  in  that  logical  position?  This  isunde- 
niably  the  question  to  which  the  plain, 
common-sense  thinker  is  driven.  The  nat- 
uralistic philosophers  have  done  a  great  and 
excellent  work.  It  seems  certain  that  the 
intelliQ:ence  of  mankind  will  bear  out  that 
statement.  They  have  done  an  immense 
deal  to  develop  the  human  reason :  why, 
then,  should  their  system,  which  has  done 
so  much  to  develop  reason,  appear  to 
undermine  its  force  ?  To  the  common 
mind,  such  a  fact  irresistibly  suggests  the 
idea  that  they  have  not  clearly  analyzed 
their  own  processes,  and  that,  in  represent- 
ing their  system  as  being  based  on  absolute 
logic,  they  have  put  it  in  a  false  and  dam- 
aging light.  It  also  suggests  the  question 
whether  their  whole  system  does  not  in 
reality  rest,  like  any  other  objective  know- 
ledge, on  perception ;  and  whether  its  ac- 
tual merit  does  not  lie  in  the  strictness 
with  which  they  have  insisted  on  the  cohe- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       415 

rence  of  perception.  It  further  suggests 
the  query  whether  proof  of  an  objective 
fact  can  ever  be  anything  more  than  the 
strict  coordination  of  reason  with  a  wider 
apphcation  of  the  sensibihty;  or,  in  other 
words,  the  extension  of  the  coherence  of 
perception.  It  seems  to  indicate  that  per- 
ception is  proved,  or,  in  other  words,  cor- 
roborated, first,  by  making  sure  of  the 
perceptive  organism  itself,  by  determining 
experimentally  that  it  is  complete  in  its 
elements,  that  impurities  are  eliminated, 
and  accurate  focalization  secured ;  then, 
secondly,  by  exercising  it  from  different 
points  of  view.  Thus,  as,  from  different 
view-points,  things  are  seen  to  stand  to- 
gether in  a  rational  unity,  the  vision  is 
proved  to  our  reasonable  satisfaction.  Its 
coherence  with  nature  is  established ;  we 
discern  a  principle  of  unity,  or,  in  other 
words,  what  we  call  a  unifying  force.  On 
this  ground  of  coherent  perception,  taken 
from  different  standpoints,  we  accept  the 
uniformity  of  nature ;  we  cannot  prove  it, 
but  a  widely  coherent  perception  irresist- 
ibly suggests  it. 

I  put  this  simply  as  an  hypothesis  sug- 


41 6       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

gested  by  the  exigencies  of  the  case.  If  it 
be  correct,  it  certainly  throws  light  upon 
the  situation,  for,  taking  this  view,  the  work 
which  the  naturalistic  philosophers  have 
accomplished  for  us  cannot  be  shaken. 
True,  they  have  not  given  us  a  final  phi- 
losophy of  things, —  who  could  expect  it  of 
them  ?  —  but  they  have  greatly  developed 
and  disciplined  the  perceptive  organism,  so 
that  its  visions  have  become  rational  ob- 
servations. Thus  we  see,  or,  what  is  the 
same  thing,  we  feel  the  universe  to-day  in  a 
larger,  truer,  and  more  coherent  unity.  We 
see  things  standing  together  in  wider  rela- 
tions, and  it  is  the  verdict  of  our  coherent 
perceptive  organism  which  gives  to  natu- 
ralism its  actual  strength.  We  believe  it 
to  be  true  because  it  looks  coherent  to  us, 
because  we  are  finely  sensitive  to  new  as- 
pects of  things,  and  discern  relations  before 
hidden  from  the  unobserving  human  eye. 
But,  however  broad  may  be  the  unity  in 
which  we  see  things,  it  cannot  be  perfect ; 
we  can  never  see  all  around.  As  Mr.  Bal- 
four has  pointed  out,  there  are  many  strik- 
ing facts  that  cannot  as  yet  be  brought  into 
this  scientific  unity.    Such  must  always  be 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      417 

the  case.  To  see  all  around  would  be  to 
see  every  aspect  of  everything,  and  that,  to 
a  finite  mind,  is  impossible.  Human  per- 
ception must  be  content  with  imperfect 
unities;  it  must  get  along  without  abso- 
lute coherence.  It  must  supplement  itself 
with  God's  guidance.  Nor  does  the  value 
of  philosophy  lie  in  what  it  proves,  but  in 
its  contribution  to  a  more  coherent  percep- 
tion. Despite  our  best  philosophizing, 
there  will  frequently  be  two  unities,  —  a 
spiritual  and  a  material,  for  instance ;  we 
cannot  reduce  them  to  one.  We  need  not 
worry ;  it  is  perfectly  rational  to  hold  both, 
while  we  wait  for  more  light.  Sometimes 
we  can  reduce  things  mainly  to  a  single 
unity,  but  there  will  still  remain  outstand- 
ing facts.  Such  outstanding  facts,  how- 
ever, are  not  to  be  regarded  as  disprov- 
ing a  widely  coherent  vision.  If  the 
perceptive  organism  works  coherently,  we 
may  logically  follow  it.  Particularly  is  this 
the  case  if  our  reason  coheres  with  the 
logic  of  life :  therefore  no  position  can  be 
more  rational  than  that  of  the  believer  in 
the  New  Testament.  Coherent  percep- 
tion growing,  day  by  day,  broader,  reveals 


41 8       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

to  him  the  fact  that  the  New  Testament  is 
an  organ  of  spiritual  vitality  corresponding 
to  the  Jesus  whom  it  portrays.  It  is  more- 
over a  spiritual  authority.  Behind  it  is 
the  coercion  of  spiritual  necessity,  and 
standing  together  with  it  the  fact  of  spirit- 
ual evolution.  The  more  he  uses  his 
spiritual  perception  the  wider  becomes  the 
unity,  the  fewer  become  the  outstanding 
facts.  Thus  the  New  Testament  author- 
ity is  backed  by  the  logic  of  life.  He  is 
therefore  strictly  rational  when  he  insists 
on  adhering  to  it  despite  the  outstanding 
facts.  Particularly  is  he  reasonable  in  in- 
sisting that  the  New  Testament  is  not  to 
be  brought  before  the  bar  of  those  facts 
and  compelled  to  adjust  itself  to  them; 
reason  would  require  that  the  outstand- 
ing facts  should  adjust  themselves  to  the 
larger  and  more  vital  unity.  We  do  not 
suddenly  take  the  father  of  a  family,  who 
has  been  a  good  citizen  for  forty  years, 
and  demand  that  he  shall  prove  himself 
innocent  of  a  criminal  charge  or  be  con- 
demned. That  is  opposed  to  the  logic  of 
life.  We  insist  that  the  burden  of  proof 
shall    lie   with    the    accusers.     The    New 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.      419 

Testament  has  been  for  eighteen  centuries 
a  parent  life,  —  a  begetter  and  feeder  of 
spiritual  vitalities.  It  has  supported  mil- 
lions of  souls  in  the  struggle  for  spiritual 
existence.  Millions  are  still  clinging  to  it 
for  what  spiritual  life  they  have.  Its  au- 
thority is  the  only  guide  for  its  children, 
in  matters  that  transcend  their  experience. 
It  is  not  just  nor  reasonable  to  demand 
that  it  shall  now  instantly  prove  its  cohe- 
rence with  all  outstanding  facts  or  be  dis- 
credited. As  has  been  already  said,  no 
system  could  stand  that  test.  Naturalism 
appears  ridiculous  under  it.  The  burden 
of  proof  lies  with  the  critics.  They  must 
first  prove  conclusively  their  outstanding 
facts,  but  this  is  not  enough.  The  believer 
in  the  New  Testament  is  not  logically 
bound  to  reduce  everything  to  unity  with 
his  view.  No  reasonable  man  undertakes 
such  a  task.  The  critic  must  show,  not 
only  that  his  adverse  facts  are  really  out- 
standing, but  that  they  interfere  with  the 
coherence  of  the  believer's  view  in  such  a 
way  as  to  discredit  his  perceptive  organ- 
ism. This  same  principle  applies  to  the 
higher  criticism.     It  shows  what  should  be 


420       THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

our  attitude  toward  it.  We  ought  to  wel- 
come it,  but  not  because  it  can  absolutely 
prove  anything,  or  furnish  us  with  any 
final  certitude  as  regards  the  New  Tes- 
tament. No  one  who  has  followed  the 
process  of  the  Tiibingen  school  can  have 
failed  to  note  the  precariousness  of  its  evi- 
dence as  a  foundation  for  absolute  faith. 

The  final  guaranty  of  a  revelation  must 
be  spiritual  perception;  the  advantage  of 
the  higher  criticism  lies  not  in  what  it  is 
going  to  prove,  but  in  the  element  of  dis- 
cipline to  our  perception.  This  is  so  great 
an  advantage  that  we  ought  heartily  to  wel- 
come it,  while,  at  the  same  time,  we  resist 
the  unreasonable  assertions  of  some  of 
its  followers.  Its  function  is  really  much 
more  limited  than  they  suppose,  and  reason 
requires  that  it  should  have  a  broader 
working  hypothesis  which  will  include  the 
spiritual  facts  already  referred  to. 

But,  it  may  be  urged,  all  things  should 
be  open  to  reason ;  we  should  allow  the 
Bible  to  be  criticised,  like  any  other  book, 
or  it  is  not  open  to  reason.  Certainly,  but 
how  would  you  criticise  any  other  book.? 
Would  you  not  require  as  a  condition  that 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       421 

the  critic  should  possess  the  elements  of 
perception  necessary  to  detect  the  qualities 
contained  in  the  book?  Is  it  not  reason- 
able to  insist  that  a  man  who  discusses  an 
authority  should  know  the  practical  his- 
tory and  relations  of  that  authority  ? 

Shall  the  genuineness  of  a  Scripture  be 
judged  by  a  man  who  has  neither  the  in- 
sight or  spiritual  experience  to  judge  what 
it  actually  is,  what  it  has  done  or  is  doing 
for  human  souls,  even  though  he  be  as 
lofty  an  intelligence  as  Martineau  ?  Shall 
we  not  demand  of  him  that  he  possess 
sufificient  sympathy  with  psychic  humanity 
to  understand  practically  the  pedagogics 
of  the  Hebrew  system?  Reason  without 
adequate  feeling  or  experience  is  a  crip- 
pled organ.  The  critical  faculty  demands 
as  one  of  its  elements  the  broadest  and 
highest  sensibility.  But,  it  may  be  urged, 
if  you  base  the  Christian  faith  on  percep- 
tion, you  are  on  the  same  footing  with  such 
visionaries  as  the  Christian  scientists.  I 
answer,  we  do  not  base  Christianity  on  a 
supra-sensuous  intuition.  We  maintain 
its  foundation  to  be  the  complete  purified 
and  spiritualized   organ  of   perception   in 


422      THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF. 

which  all  the  elements  of  vision  are  co- 
ordinated. If  we  insist  on  a  supra-sensu- 
ous element,  we  insist  that  it  should  be  a 
genuine  evolution:  we  insist,  also,  that  it 
should  not  be  isolated;  that  it  should  be 
compelled  to  justify  itself  by  its  coherence 
with  all  the  elements  that  can  enter  into 
the  process  of  vision.  When  the  Chris- 
tian scientist  gives  us  a  vision  that  stands 
together  in  perfect  harmony  with  a  vast 
spiritual  organism  as  perfect  as  our  spe- 
cific revelation,  we  shall  be  ready  to  ac- 
cept it.  When  a  Roman  Catholic  miracle 
turns  out  to  be  no  sporadic  case  of  reli- 
gious hypnotism,  but  a  true  symbol  and 
prophecy  of  spiritual  experience  standing 
together  with  such  a  drama  as  that  of.  the 
Hebrew  nation  and  the  Christ,  we  shall 
be  prepared  to  accept  it  as  an  authority  ; 
and  if  it  justifies  itself  by  bringing  us  into 
a  coherent  perception  of  the  divine  relation- 
ship, and  thus  coordinates  our  souls  with 
the  Divine  Spirit,  we  shall  be  sure  that 
our  faith  is  founded  upon  a  rock.  The  ul- 
timate ration^  verity  is  the  final  guaranty 
of  faith,  and  he  who  possesses  that  ultimate 
verity  with  any  permanent  grasp  will  dis- 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  BELIEF.       423 

cover  that  it  is  somethinor  beside  a  fleetinof 
emotion.  It  is  not  only  love,  but  reason ; 
it  is  a  coherent  thought  which  pervades  the 
whole  New  Testament. 

Nay,  it  is  an  Intellect,  of  which  the 
broadest  human  mind  is  but  a  shadow, 
an  Intellect  ageless  and  infinite.  It  is  the 
mind  of  Christ,  and  it  stands  together  with 
the  love  of  Christ  in  an  indivisible  unity. 
For  him  who  finds  it,  it  is  indeed  "  The 
Rock  of  Ages." 


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